J 



If' 

I P ^--'r' ''i i 



lii 



OCEAN TO OCEAN 

AN ACCOUNT 
PERSONAL AND HISTORICAL 

OF 

NICARAGUA AND ITS PEOPLE 




BY 



J. W. G. WALKER, U. S. N. 



With illustrations from original photographs and maps 



CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1902 



THE LIBRARY SF 

OONGRESS, 
Two Copies Receive* 

MAR. 8 1902 

C«»PVRIOHT ENTBY 

CLASS a^ XXo. N». 

COPY B. 



COPYRIGHT 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1902 



PUBLISHED 
FEBRUARY, I902. 



«^^^ 
^^•'l 




PREFATORY NOTE. 

During the year 1898 the author was em- 
ployed, under the direction of the Nicaragua 
Canal Commission, in surveying the belt of 
country available for canal construction be- 
tween Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean. 
This little volume is the outgrowth of that 
visit to the country. It does not pretend to 
literary excellence, nor does it purport to 
treat exhaustively the subjects touched upon, 
but aims rather to give a correct idea of the 
country and people, and to afford in a compact 
form such other information as the general 
reader may desire. 

While an Isthmian Canal now seems assured, 
it is impossible at the present time to tell 
whether the Nicaragua or Panama route will 
finally be chosen. The construction of a canal 
at either location is perfectly practicable, and if 
the works of the Panama Company were ac- 
quired for ^40,000,000 the cost of completing 
the two channels would be practically the 
same. The chief disadvantage of the Nicar- 
agua route is the cost of operation and 
maintenance, which is estimated at ^3,300,000 



4 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

per annum, or ^1,300,000 more than the 
Panama route. Whether it should be chosen 
in preference to its rival seems to depend, 
therefore, upon whether it possesses superior 
advantages worth securing at this excess annual 
expenditure. 

These advantages are, briefly, as follows. 

A saving of from one to two days upon all 
trans-isthmian commerce except that originat- 
ing or ending upon the west coast of South 
America. The commerce thus benefited in- 
cludes that between the Atlantic and Pacific 
coasts of the United States, which, being 
coastwise trade protected by law from foreign 
competition, is of special importance to the 
American people. 

More favorable hygienic conditions at Nicar- 
agua, indicating less loss of life during construc- 
tion, and less liability to commercial loss after 
completion, from the quarantine of vessels. 

The possibility of developing large portions 
of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and of establish- 
ing, during the period of construction, intimate 
business relations which would benefit our 
manufacturing, agricultural, and other interests. 
The Panama Canal would be merely a means 
of communication between the two oceans. 

An average saving of about nine days for 
sailing ships in reaching and leaving the 
termini, due to the prevalence of trade winds 



PREFATORY NOTE. 5 

not felt at Panama. It is probable that for 
many years to come considerable slow moving 
freight will be transported by large five-masted 
schooners, manned by small crews, and this 
class of shipping should therefore receive due 
consideration. 

It is estimated that with a proper system of 
tolls the revenues of either canal would greatly 
exceed the cost of maintenance and operation, 
but would not be sufficient to pay a fair rate of 
interest upon the capital invested. If, there- 
fore, the canal is regarded as a business venture, 
the Panama location is unquestionably prefer- 
able; but if it is regarded as a means of benefit- 
ing mankind, and particularly the citizens of 
the United States, the Nicaragua route has 
many strong claims to consideration. 

In the preparation of this volume, numerous 
official reports and standard treatises were 
consulted, notably the works of Squier, Belt, 
and Keasebey. 

Thanks are due to Messrs. W. V. Alford, 
D. H. Baldwin, G. W. Brown, Fred Davis, 
and H. W. Durham, for photographs loaned, 
and to Mr. E. B. Harden for much valuable 
aid and encouragement. 

J. W. G. Walker. 
U. S. Navy Yard, 
Charlestown, Mass., Jan. 20, 1902. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter 

I Introductory 



II Narrative — New York to Greytown 

III Historical and Diplomatic . . . 

IV Physical Considerations .... 
V Canal Projects, Past and Present 

VI Narrative — Greytown to Rivas . 

VII Narrative — San' Pablo and Espinal 

VIII Narrative — Paraiso and El Pavon 

IX Narrative — La Flor 

X Narrative — Tola and El Carmen 

XI Narrative — Rivas to Granada 

XII Early Political History .... 

XIII William Walker, Eilibuster . . . 

XIV Narrative — Managua to Corinto 



Page 
II 

26 

40 

74 

85 
119 
138 

153 
163 
178 
194 
212 
240 
271 



APPENDIX : 

Great Britain — Interoceanic Ship Canal . 283 
Interoceanic Canai, 290 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

V' 

Head of Rio Chico Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Camp on San Juan River 32 

Ruined Dredgers at Greytown 38 

The Plaza, Greytown 5° ^ 

The Fort and River Front, Castillo 98 ■^ 

Castillo 122 

A Native Belle 136 

Street in a Native Town 140 -^ 

A Transit Party iS4 

A Buttressed Giant of the Forest 158 

Primitive Sawmill still in Use 164 

A Native Village 198 

The Volcano Momotombo 272 

The Water Front, Corinto 278 

MAPS 

General Map of the Nicaragua Canal Belt 10 

Map of the Western Division, showing Loca- 
tion OF Proposed Canal 74 

Map of the Lower San Juan River, showing 

Location of Proposed Canal . . . . . 120 

Map of the Upper San Juan River, showing 

Location of Proposed Canal 126 ^ 



GENERA]. MAP 

OF THE 

Nicaragua Canal Belt 








c 



^ 



r^vV 



OCEAN TO OCEAN 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 

ALAND of purple hills and fertile valleys 
clad in a garment of perennial green, 
where cold and hunger are alike un- 
known, and fever flies before the purifying 
northeast trades, what wonder that an ancient 
chronicler, marvelling at the lavishness of na- 
ture's gifts, called Nicaragua " Mahomet's Par-> 
adise " ? Everything essential to the material 
wants of man is ready to his hand, and the earth 
needs scant encouragement to bring forth its 
abundance. Luscious fruits of the tropics 
mingle with products of the temperate zone; 
oranges, mangoes, guavas, plantains, spring 
spontaneously from the soil. The feathery 
heads of cocoanut palms nod against an azure 
sky, while the blackened stumps in scattered 
clearings are lost in billowy fields of corn. 
Deer bound across the forest glades, herds of 
peccaries thread the matted jungle, and succu- 



12 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

, lent wild turkeys are ever-present neighbors. 
From the tangled virgin forests of the eastern 
coast, bathed in warm showers from the restless 
sea, to the comparatively cultivated Pacific slope, 
basking each year in six long months of sun- 
shine, the land is one of wondrous beauty and 
richness. A salubrious climate, an equable 
temperature, and a marked absence of the 
more noxious forms of animal life combine to 
make " Mahomet's Paradise " deserving of its 
name. 
"^ Amidst these fair surroundings four hundred 
thousand people are dreaming the years away. 
No traditions of the past, no ambitions for the 
future, disturb the even tenor of their lives. A 
hammock in the shade during the sunny sum- 
mer days, a thatched roof when it rains, plan- 
tains plucked from a near-by tree, and corn and 
beans from some half-cultivated garden supply 
their every need. In such a climate clothing 
is merely a concession to the claims of decency, 
and Nicaraguans are not a nation of prudes. 
The wonders of the forest, questions of na- 
tional import, even the frequently recurring 
revolutions forced by interested party leaders, 
awaken only a languid and transitory interest 
in minds habitually steeped in indolence. In 
a few brief years they shall return to Mother 
Earth; why, then, vex themselves with dis- 
turbing problems which perhaps only time can 



INTRODUCTORY 13 

solve? Here, one may at least be comfortable : 
beyond, quien sabe ? 

Situated between io°4o' and 15° north lati- 
tude and 83'' 1 1' and 87°4o' west longitude, Nic- 
aragua has an area of 58,500 square miles, or 
about seven times that of Massachusetts. Its 
eastern boundary is the Caribbean Sea, which 
extends from Cape Gracias a Dios on the north 
to the Colorado mouth of the Rio San Juan on 
the south, a distance of about 280 miles. The 
coast is low and swampy for a distance of from 
twenty to fifty miles from the sea, and numer- 
ous shallow lagoons afford shelter to craft of 
light draught. A multitude of small islands, 
the chief of which are Great and Little Corn, 
Old Providence, and St. Andrew's, He off shore ; 
picturesque bits of scenery little appreciated by 
navigators. The only harbors worthy of note 
which are available for present use are Pearl 
Cay and Blewfields lagoons, both deficient in 
depth but otherwise good. Greytown harbor, 
which fifty years ago afforded safe and ample 
anchorage for sea-going craft, has been cut off 
from the sea by bars of sand, and can only be 
entered by small tugs and lighters through the 
mouth of the Rio San Juan. It was opened 
in 1890 by the Nicaragua Canal Construction 
Company, but since the abandonment of work 
on the canal it has again closed. 

The southern boundary of Nicaragua follows 



14 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the right bank of the Rio San Juan from Har- 
bor Head to within three miles of Castillo, where 
it leaves the river to the northward but runs 
parallel to it and to the southern shore of the 
lake, at a distance of three miles, to a point 
near the Rio Sapoa, whence it takes a south- 
erly direction for a few miles to its terminus at 
Salinas Bay. The Pacific coast is almost a con- 
tinuation of the southern boundary, although 
it trends slightly more to the northward, and 
the two together form the base of an isosceles 
triangle, of which Cape Gracias a Dios is the 
apex, and the Caribbean seacoast and northern 
boundary the other two sides. The Pacific 
coast, 200 miles in length, is bold and rocky, 
with two excellent harbors, Corinto (Realejo) 
and San Juan del Sur, both of which are vis- 
ited regularly by ships of the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company. Brito, often referred to 
as a harbor, is merely a slight indentation of 
the coast-line formed by a projecting rocky 
headland, and is only used by occasional bands 
of insurgents or smugglers because of its isol- 
ated position. The northern boundary, from the 
Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific Ocean to Cape 
Gracias a Dios on, the Caribbean Sea, passes 
through a comparatively unknown country. 

As has been said, the eastern coast is 
bordered by a low and swampy belt from 20 
to 50 miles wide, from the western side of 



INTRO D UCTOR Y 1 5 

which spring the foothills of the Cordilleras, 
heavily timbered and little known except near 
the Rio San Juan. Thence the country gradu- 
ally increases in altitude to the summit of the 
range, rising in the mountainous northern 
districts to an average elevation of four or five 
thousand feet above the sea, but barely attain- 
ing as many hundred in the depression through 
which the Rio San Juan flows. The slope 
from the watershed to the basin occupied by 
lakes Nicarasfua and Managrua is short and 
steep : hence the streams flowing to the west- 
ward are insignificant, while those flowing to 
the Caribbean Sea are long and of considerable 
volume, traversing broad sloping plateaus dotted 
with mountain peaks, the origin of which will 
be explained in a subsequent chapter. The 
Atlantic slope is covered with a dense virgin 
forest, producing mahogany and rubber in 
abundance. Farther to the westward, in 
Chontales, Matagalpa and Segovia, are broad 
savannahs sustaining great herds of beef cattle, 
horses, and m.ules; while along the Pacific 
coast is a strip of comparatively open, fertile 
country, in which is concentrated the greater 
part of the population and wealth of Nicaragua. 
Coffee, cacao, sugar-cane, tobacco, rice, and 
indigo thrive ; corn produces two and some- 
times four crops a year; and cotton does well 
but is little cultivated. 



l6 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

The country's natural resources are im- 
mense. Millions of acres of rich land, the 
product of decomposed volcanic tufas, need 
but Httle encouragement to yield enormous 
harvests. Only the innate laziness of the 
natives, intensified by frequently recurring civil 
wars and consequent conscription and oppres- 
sion, prevents the country from blooming like 
a vast garden. A government bounty of ten 
cents for every cacao tree and one of five cents 
for every coffee tree planted is intended to 
stimiilate production, but the difiEculty, not to 
say impossibility, of procuring the payment 
of such bounties has rendered the device of 
doubtful utility. Nevertheless, both coffee and 
cacao are extensively cultivated, the former 
more particularly in high parts of the country 
and upon mountain sides, where the air is cool. 
Fruits grow in surprising variety and pro- 
fusion. Plantains, bananas, mangoes, guavas, 
oranges, limes, lemons, nisperos, watermelons, 
muskmelons, citrons, pineapples, and cocoanuts 
abound; but little attention is paid to their 
cultivation, the people seeming to prefer in- 
ferior fruit grown without labor to better 
varieties requiring some care. A favorite fruit, 
which might more properly be classed as a 
vegetable, is the avocado, or alligator pear, 
whose yellow, oily meat makes a delicious 
salad. Medicinal and flavoring plants abound ; 



INTROD UCTOR Y I ^ 

sarsaparilla, aloes, ipecacuanha, ginger, vanilla, 
copaiva, gum arable, and Peruvian bark (qui- 
nine) are indigenous. Mahogany, brazil-wood, 
cedar, logwood, lignum-vitae, and rosewood 
grow in the forests, the first three in great pro- 
fusion, a lack of transportation facilities and 
the Government's policy of granting exclusive 
rights to favored merchants alone preventing 
the development of an extensive and profitable 
export trade. Gold and silver occur in con- 
siderable quantities north and east of the lakes, 
but the difificulty of conveying suitable ma- 
chinery over rugged mountains and through 
trackless woods has prevented any considerable 
pursuit of what may some day prove a profitable 
industry. 

The feature which renders Nicaragua of 
peculiar interest to the rest of the world is 
its great lake, communicating with the Carib- 
bean Sea by a noble stream, the Rio San Juan, 
and separated from the Pacific Ocean by a strip 
of land only twelve miles wide, containing the 
lowest pass through the continental divide from 
Alaska to Cape Horn. The lake is elliptical 
in form, lOO miles long by 45 miles wide, and 
the elevation of its surface varies from 97 to 
no feet above that of the sea. It receives the 
overflow from Lake Managua, which lies 17 
miles to the northwestward and has an area 
of 438 square miles, the two together draining 



1 8 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

yf about 8,500 square miles of country, a territory 
as large as the state of Massachusetts. The 
Rio San Juan, which carries all of this drainage 
to the Caribbean Sea, is a large stream naviga- 
ble for river boats during the greater part of 
the year, but containing four rapids which im- 
pede traffic to a certain extent. The " Vic- 
toria," an iron boat drawing some five or six 
feet of water, was taken from the sea to the 
lake during a period of unusually high water, 
but under ordinary circumstances no attempt 
is made to pass the rapids at Castillo, freight 
being hauled around them on a tramway and 
reshipped by another boat. The Machuca, 
Balas, and Toro rapids are passable for river 
boats during the rainy season. The entire 
length of the stream, from the outlet of the 
lake to the sea, is 122 miles, and its average 
width is about 1,000 feet. Except at the 
rapids, and in the delta portion during the 
dry season, there is an abundant depth of 
water for any but sea-going vessels, although, 
should the stream be canalized as has been 
proposed, considerable straightening and deep- 
ening would be necessary. The upper reaches 
are characterized by a comparatively sluggish 
current, but below the mouth of the Rio San 
Carlos it is a swift, shallow, turbid stream. 

The depression west of the lake, through 
which it is proposed to build the canal, con- 



INTRODUCTORY 1 9 

sists of the Rio Las Lajas and Rio Grande 
valleys, the former containing a lake affluent 
and the latter sloping gently to the Pacific 
Ocean. The summit of the separating divide 
is only 154 feet above the sea, and the distance 
from lake to ocean along the projected location 
is about 1 7 miles. 

Besides the Rio San Juan, Nicaragua has 
three large rivers, all of which flow into the 
Caribbean Sea and are comparatively unknown. 
They are the Rio Coco, called also the Wanks 
and the Segovia, which follows the Honduras 
boundary and enters the sea at Cape Gracias 
a Dios ; the Rio Grande,^ or Avaltara ; and 
the Escondido, or Blewfields River, which de- 
bouches into Blewfields Lagoon. Many streams 
of lesser size flow to the sea or feed the lakes ; 
west of the Chontales mountains they are, 
however, usually somewhat torrential in char- 
acter, attaining considerable volume during the 
wet season but dwindling to extinction beneath 
the scorching sun of summer. 

The great chain of the Cordilleras, which for- 
merly constituted the continental divide, crosses 
Nicaragua from northwest to southeast, par- 
alleling the eastern shore of the lake at a dis- 

^ This should not be confounded with the Rio Grande west 
of Lake Nicaragua, through whose valley the canal location 
passes. There are at least three Rio Grandes in Nicaragua — 
probably many more. 



../ 



20 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

tance of some thirty miles and thrusting itself 
upon the San Juan valley near the town of 
Castillo. West of this range, and extending 
from the Gulf of Fonseca on the north to the 
island of Ometepe on the south, is another, the 
Cordillera de los Marabios, consisting of a series 
of volcanic peaks in various stages of activity 
or decay. Through these vents has been 
ejected, in comparatively recent geologic times, 
the material which forms the Jinotepe plateau 
and the fertile plain of Leon, and which, by 
separating the former Bay of Nicaragua from 
the Pacific Ocean, has produced the present 
lake. Many of the peaks are extinct and crumb- 
ling; others, as Momotombo, smoke and give 
occasional signs of activity. While numerous 
eruptions have taken place within historic 
times, none of consequence have been in dan- 
gerous proximity to the canal line, and there 
are reasons, which will be explained later, for 
supposing that future outbreaks will occur in 
the more remote portions of the range. 

Nicaragua is a military despotism masquerad- 
ing as a Republic. The president, although 
nominally elected by the people, is almost in- 
variably a successful military leader who forces 
himself into office and maintains his supremacy 
with a strong hand. Such a government, while 
arbitrary and tyrannical, is probably best 
adapted to the needs of the country. In their 



INTRODUCTORY 21 

present stage of development the people are 
unfit for true self-government, and internecine 
war and consequent national disintegration 
would result from any indecision or over- 
scrupulousness on the part of the executive. 
The present incumbent, General Zelaya, is an 
able, broad-minded man whose strong personal- 
ity and indomitable energy have enabled him to 
administer a restless and unappreciative country 
for eight troubled years. He represents the 
Liberal party, and, since one of its most notable 
achievements has been the curbing of the power 
of the clergy in temporal affairs, it is needless 
to say that the sym.pathies of the priesthood are 
in general with his Conservative opponents, the 
chief of whom live in exile, whence they direct 
abortive insurrections against the existing gov- 
ernment. Notwithstanding a certain laxity 
of morals among her local officers the Church 
has great influence with the people and is an 
ally not be despised. 

Zelaya first became President in July, 1893, 
as the result of a revolution against an unpopu- 
lar Conservative government. He was elected 
for a third term of four years in 1901, — his 
enemies say after disfranchising a large number 
of his political opponents by the simple expedi- 
ent of conscription. Under his rule the country 
has prospered, according to Central American 
standards, and it is probable that the occasional 



22 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

insurrections which occur are due more to the 
desire of Conservative leaders to return to 
power than to any wide-spread dissatisfaction 
among the people. The government is des- 
potic, but perhaps none other would be less so. 
The Constitution is modelled somewhat after 
that of the United States, but with certain im- 
portant differences. Perhaps the most far- 
reaching of these is the power of appointment 
vested in the President, He designates all de- 
partmental and municipal officials and is thus 
enabled to employ agents who may be de- 
pended upon to carry out his will. His power 
of disfranchising voters of opposing factions by 
impressing them for military service has already 
been noted. A Cabinet of five ministers is se- 
lected by the President, and there is a Congress 
of one house, the members of which are elected 
by universal suffrage for terms of two years. 
The judicial power is vested in a supreme 
Court of Justice, two chambers of second in- 
stance, and judges of inferior tribunals. The . 
army is the entire male population of the 
country, a portion of which is always under 
arms; a bare-footed, undisciplined mob, armed 
for the most part with old Remington rifles, it 
is nevertheless a rather effective fighting force 
of great endurance and mobility. A limited 
number of modern field-guns are efficiently 
served by trained men. There is no real navy, 



INTRODUCTORY 23 

although the " Momotombo," an old tramp 
steamer mounting several field-pieces, lay at 
Corinto when I was there, and " El 93," plying 
upon Lake Nicaragua, is owned by the govern- 
ment and frequently has troops aboard. 

The population of Nicaragua is estimated at 
420,000, most of which is concentrated north 
and west of the lakes. The Indian element 
predominates, but there are many whites and 
negroes of pure blood, besides a large mixed 
population. The whites are of course chiefly 
of Spanish extraction ; the Indians of Mata- 
galpa and the west coast are of Aztec descent, 
retaining the mild and amiable characteristics 
of their forefathers, while those of the east 
coast are of a different race, darker and smaller, 
and are usually called Caribs or Mosquitoes, 
although these names should properly be ap- 
plied only to members of two among many 
related coast tribes. The principal towns, in 
order of their size, are Leon, Masaya, Granada, 
Chinandega, Managua, and Rivas ; no reliable 
census has ever been taken, but their popu- 
lation is estimated as follows : Leon, 50,000 ; 
Masaya, 18,000; Granada, 15,000; Chinan- 
dega, 12,000; Managua, 10,000; and Rivas, 
8,000. They are all upon Nicaragua's main 
artery of commerce, which extends from Grey- 
town to Corinto and consists of the Rio San 
Juan, Lake Nicaragua, a railway from Granada 



24 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

on Lake Nicaragua to Managua on Lake Mana- 
gua, Lake Managua, and a railway from Momo- 
tombo on Lake Managua to Corinto. Rivas has 
the additional commercial advantage of being 
within eighteen miles of the port of San Juan 
del Sur, but this is neutralized by its lack of 
sympathy with the existing government and its 
proximity to the Costa Rican frontier, which 
make it the objective point of occasional revo- 
lutionary incursions from the neighbor state, 
to the utter destruction of trade. The country 
is of course essentially agricultural, and manu- 
facturing and mining are infant industries. 
Nevertheless, large quantities of brown sugar 
and aguardiente are produced for home con- 
sumption, while cotton, silk, shoes, hammocks, 
saddle-bags, pottery, hats, saddles, and other 
articles of native make bid fair to hold their 
own against imported goods. 

An impression seems to prevail throughout 
the United States that Nicaragua is an un- 
healthful country. Nothing could be farther 
from the truth. The climate is doubtless en- 
ervating, because of the continuous heat and 
the quantity of moisture in the air during half 
the year or more, but it is not more unhealth- 
ful than that of large portions of our own 
country. Remittent and intermittent fevers, 
which are the most prevalent diseases, are mild 
in character, of brief duration, and succumb 



INTRODUCTORY 2$ 

readily to medical treatment. The same may 
be said of most other maladies, particularly of 
bronchitis and pneumonia. Yellow fever, which 
rages at Port Limon, 75 miles down the coast, 
is unknown at Greytown, perhaps because the 
heavy and almost constant rainfall prevents 
the accumulation of filth. Certain towns on 
the west side have an unenviable reputation for 
sickliness, but this must be attributed, not to 
the climate, but to an utter disregard of the 
simplest sanitary precautions. To an indi- 
vidual or community living under suitable con- 
ditions the climate is innocuous, although it 
may be questioned whether it will remain so 
along the canal line after excavation has 
begun. 



CHAPTER II 

NARRATIVE — NEW YORK TO GREYTOWN 

IT was arranged that we should sail from 
New York for Grey town the 5 th of 
December, 1897, on the gunboat " New- 
port," which had been placed at the disposal 
of the Nicaragua Canal Commission by the 
Secretary of the Navy both for purposes of 
transportation and to make the necessary off- 
shore surveys at Greytown. The day fixed for 
our departure dawned clear and cold, with a 
stiff westerly wind. 

In accordance with a previous arrangement, 
I met the members of the Commission and the 
Chief Engineer at the foot of East 23rd Street 
and embarked with them upon a tug which 
took us over to the Navy Yard, where the 
" Newport " was lying. The little ship was 
crowded from stem to stern, and it was with 
some difficulty that we struggled to our 
quarters and stored our impedimenta, but 
when the whistle sounded there was a shore- 
ward rush of relatives and friends and our 
party assumed its normal proportions. We 



NEW YORK TO GREY TOWN 2/ 

left the dock amid shouting and waving of 
handkerchiefs and were soon steaming down 
the harbor. 

The " Newport " is a Httle composite bark- 
entine-rigged gunboat of a thousand tons' 
displacement, of considerable coal endurance, 
but only moderate speed, and as we carried a 
lot of lumber and two large steam launches on 
the spar deck she trimmed badly and could not 
do herself justice. Then, too, she had recently 
been put in commission and possessed no heat- 
inof facilities. The result was that when we 
got outside Sandy Hook and were exposed 
to the full force of the biting winter wind 
and an unaccustomed swell, sixty-nine de- 
pressed landsmen of the engineering staff 
crowded forward to the funnel's grateful 
warmth, heedless of the fact that the odors 
arising from the engine-room hatch were not 
the best possible preparation for a trip around 
Cape Hatteras. Dinner and supper were 
poorly attended, — which perhaps was fortu- 
nate, since the cooks had not yet found their 
sea legs, — and we turned in early, sleeping in 
cots and hammocks so closely packed together 
on the gun deck that, once ensconced in one's 
proper berth, it was practically impossible to 
move. I was thought particularly fortunate in 
being quartered in the Captain's ofHce, but as I 
lay crosswise of the ship I stood first on one 



28 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

end and then on the other, like a living minute 
glass; and towards morning, when I had finally 
attained a state of blissful unconsciousness, 
the typewriter slid from its stand, and, falling 
upon my already sorely tried stomach, abruptly 
recalled me to the stern realities of life. All 
the next day and night it continued cold, but 
the wind was in the main fair and we made 
satisfactory progress. By Tuesday we began 
to run into warm weather and durine the 
remainder of the trip our only difficulty was in 
keeping comfortably cool. 

Our daily routine never varied. At five, or 
a little before, we turned out, that our bedding 
might be stowed away and the decks scrubbed. 
We went forward and pretended to wash in 
salt water under very unfavorable conditions, 
and then perched upon high places to watch 
the stars fade and the sun rise out of the sea, 
while the blue-jackets, with trousers rolled up 
to their knees, sluiced water about the decks. 
At half past seven we breakfasted, provided 
two hours and a half on a heaving deck had 
not made it a physical impossibility, after 
which pipes and cigars were produced and end- 
less yarns were spun. I do not think we 
enjoyed our tobacco much, but he who smoked 
not was regarded with suspicion. Dinner was 
the next event, followed by more smoke and 
yarns, — and so the day wore away. We 



NEW YORK TO GREYTOWN 29 

turned in early, both to kill time and to get a 
little sleep before the pitiless boatswain's mate 
awoke us in the gray of the morning to another 
round of meals and ancient tales. 

Off the Florida coast the trip was delightful. 
The sea was smooth, with a gentle breeze from 
the westward, and we skirted the shore, some- 
times within a mile and a half of the beach. 
Schools of flying fish skimmed over the waves, 
and occasionally the long fin of a shark broke 
the monotony of the water. At night a glori- 
ous moon cast a silver sheen along our wake, 
the lapping of waves at our sides, the murmur 
of wind in the rigging, and the occasional 
chiming of the ship's bell alone breaking the 
silence as we swept onward like a great white 
ghost towards the sunny south. 

We reached Key West on the morning of 
Saturday, the nth of December, and at 
once began coaling ship, that we might reach 
Greytown with full bunkers. From our berth 
at the end of a long pier extending into the 
clear emerald green water, we had an excellent 
view across the harbor, dotted with shipping 
and enlivened by boats pulling to and fro. 

On the shore near by were the custom house 
and an arsenal shaded by southern laurels and 
standing against a fine background of feathery 
palms. Behind these lay the town, which was 
quite foreign in appearance and where we 



30 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

heard as much Spanish as English. The soil is 
sandy and the growth of grass was consequently 
rather sparse, but many of the dwelling houses, 
although without any pretence to architectural 
beauty, were rendered very attractive by the 
mass of semi-tropical foliage which surrounded 
them. The dark glossy leaves of the laurel, 
the nodding heads of the palms against the 
brilliant azure sky, and the distant sparkle of 
the ever-present sea made a picture not easily 
forgotten. There were many little shops with 
Spanish signs where tobacco, coral, sponges, 
and shell ornaments were sold, but everything 
except cigar-making was apparently upon a 
small scale. 

On and near the shelving beach lay scores of 
small craft used for sponge fishing and in the 
other industries which support the place, and 
several sea-going vessels, including two men-of- 
war were anchored in the harbor. At one time 
the low-lying keys to the eastward were a veri- 
table gold mine to the wrecker, but there are 
now so many light-houses and beacons that 
navigation is rendered comparatively safe. 

We left Key West early Sunday evening 
and threaded our way cautiously out to sea. 
It was a beautiful still night, and by the time 
we had fairly left the lights of the town behind 
us and shaped our course for the Dry Tortugas, 
the moon rose like a ball of fire from the 



NEW YORK TO GREYTOWN 31 

sea, and, paling as it neared the zenith, shed a 
path of silver over the crystal trembling waves. 
All day Monday the calm lasted, and the sea 
was smooth as glass, but by Tuesday morning 
we were out from under the lee of Cuba and 
awoke to find the ship plunging and thrashing 
along through the water, with a stiff breeze on 
her port quarter and the spray flying from the 
crest of every wave. All our sails were draw- 
ing and we lay over in a smother of foam, our 
mastheads describing strange curves against 
the mass of tumbled clouds above us, and our 
smoke flying to leeward in eddying, attenuated 
streaks. The sun shone brightly most of the 
time, but occasionally one of the sudden and 
violent showers so characteristic of that region 
drove us all below and turned the gun deck 
into a heaving, staggering pandemonium. 

On Friday morning, December 17th, I went 
on deck just as the first rays of the sun 
were gilding our mastheads, and far away on 
our starboard bow was a shadowy blue mass 
which gradually resolved itself into the hills of 
Nicaragua. The outline was bold and irregular, 
but when we had run in within a few miles of 
the coast we could see that the hills were back 
from the shore, and that the country near the 
sea was low and flat. As we approached Grey- 
town we saw the Atlas boat discharq-ine freisfht 
into a lighter, and a small iron fruit-boat from 



32 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Blewfields pitching uneasily at anchor. The 
big Uner looked very cool and comfortable with 
her long sweep of shaded deck heaving gently 
to the swell of the sea, the glittering brass, 
flapping awnings, and white-coated stewards 
suggestive of all the luxuries which we had left 
behind. We sent a whale-boat across to her 
when we had anchored, and arranged to get 
some of our men ashore on the tug which 
handles the lighters, for the bar is a notori- 
ously bad place, and its passage should only 
be attempted in small craft under native pilot- 
ao-e. It was here that Commander Grossman 
and several men of the '72 expedition were 
drowned by the overturning of their whale-boat 
in the surf, others of their party barely escaping 
with their lives. 

From our anchorage we could not see Grey- 
town, which was on a lagoon behind a low, 
wooded sand-spit, and our view consisted of a 
few miles of Nicaraguan shore, flat and densely 
wooded, with a beach upon which a row of 
foaming breakers was continually visible. Far 
back inland were a few blue hills of some alti- 
tude, but the country upon the whole seemed 
flat and uninteresting. It was extremely hot 
and a heavy swell from the southeast kept us 
plunging and rolling uneasily. A few sharks 
swam lazily about the ship, and they and an 
occasional gull were the only objects which 





w»l««^ 



^'\^ 



/.^?^ 



>1^ 



NEW YORK TO GREYTOWN 33 

varied the monotony of the scene. Our party 
lounged about in the shade, watching the crew 
unship the davits on the port side, preparatory 
to launching one of the two steam cutters which 
we had on deck, and wishing for speedy deliv- 
erance from our narrow and unstable quarters. 

Saturday morning the Greytown tug and 
lighter came alongside the " Newport," and 
the transfer of freight and personal effects 
began. A heavy sea was running and the 
wind set us across it so that we rolled badly, 
but suitable tackle was rove and piece after 
piece was safely swung into the lighter. 

While this work was in progress the govern- 
ment tug "San Jacinto" arrived to take the 
Commissioners ashore, and they and the Chief 
Engineer were swung down one at a time in 
a boatswain's chair before an interested and 
critical audience. When the lighter was loaded 
most of our party scrambled aboard the tug 
which had her in tow and we started for 
shore. The breakers looked so formidable, 
and we had heard so much said about them, 
that we anticipated rather an exciting time, 
but we passed them with very little trouble, 
those which broke over the boat scarcely wet- 
ting the floor of the little cabin in which we 
were. After crossing the bar we turned sharp 
to the rio[ht and ran to a larsre stern-wheel boat 
of the Mississippi River type, to which we trans- 

3 



34 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

ferred ourselves and our possessions. While 
this change was being effected we noticed 
signs of life about a little thatched hut on 
shore, and presently there emerged from it the 
first Nicaraguan troops which we had seen. 
An officer with a machete and three bare- 
footed soldiers with muskets, who seemed to 
constitute the garrison, solemnly drew them- 
selves up and presented arms. We gave them 
a hearty cheer, upon which they dropped their 
inoffensive looking weapons in every direction 
and waved their hats, yelling and grinning in 
a friendly but unmilitary way. The river boat 
carried us up the lower San Juan, through 
dense masses of tropical vegetation and past 
sandbanks where alligators lay sleeping in the 
sun, and then, turning into a narrow, crooked 
channel, emerged into Greytown Lagoon. We 
stopped a moment at the town and then 
steamed westward for about a mile and a half 
to La Fe, a group of buildings belonging to 
the Canal Company and situated near the 
end of the canal cutting. Landing at a rotten 
wharf, we made our way to the big wooden 
building which had been assigned us for quar- 
ters, and established ourselves as comfortably 
as circumstances would permit. The ground 
floor of the structure was formerly used as a 
storeroom and above it were two stories of 
bedrooms opening upon verandas. Years 



NEW YORK TO GREYTOWN 35 

of neglect and a hot, moist climate had badly 
rotted portions of it, but a little repairing ren- 
dered it safe, and we found it most useful while 
we were organizing parties and fitting them for 
the field. Our chief discomfort arose from the 
multitude of fleas, whose appetites, whetted by 
an enforced fast of several years, were abnormal 
and insatiable. 

Along the shoreward side of the building a 
rusty railway track, sustaining a dilapidated 
push-car, vanished to the northwestward, where 
a series of widely separated cottages and offi- 
ces extending from La Fe terminated in the 
deserted and decaying hospital settlement; 
and across the track, within a stone's throw 
of our quarters, was a long, low, one-storied 
wooden building, which a motley array of 
cooks and attendants soon converted into a 
serviceable kitchen and dining room. From 
our verandah we could look out over Grey- 
town Lagoon, across a multitude of low 
sand-spits covered with a growth of scrub, to 
the open sea where the " Newport " pitched 
uneasily at anchor; and far to the right the 
roofs of Greytown gleamed white against a 
background of green. Three giant dredgers 
lay rotting in the. lagoon, and the half sub- 
merged hulks of several lighters, rusty boilers 
and machinery piled upon the bank, and de- 
caying buildings, gave an indescribable air of 



36 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

desolation to the scene, despite the forest 
growth which thrust itself upon us from 
behind, hiding the boundless swamp which 
stretches inland from the sandy shore. 

An old steam launch chartered by the Com- 
mission made regular trips between La Fe and 
Greytown, enabling us to get backwards and 
forwards quickly and to transact business with 
Commissioners, Chief Engineer, or Chief of 
Commissary, all of whom were quartered in 
the town. It rained nearly all the time, some- 
times with great violence, and the fact that 
we were supposed to be entering upon the 
dry season made us appreciate the saying that 
there are but two seasons on the east coast of 
Nicaragua, the " wet " and the " wetter." The 
yearly rainfall varies from two to three hun- 
dred inches and a precipitation of over eight 
inches in nine hours has been observed. 

The population of Greytown consists of for- 
eign merchants, native Nicaraguans, Jamaica 
negroes drawn thither by the canal, and Mos- 
quito Indians, a semi-amphibious race of abo- 
rigines. These latter are wonderfully skilful 
boatmen and venture far out to sea in their 
frail craft under conditions which no ordinary 
boat could survive. They are natives of the 
former Mosquito Reservation, now the De- 
partment of Zelaya, a tract of country about 
forty-five miles wide extending along the 



A'EW YORK TO GREYTOWN Z7 

shore of the Caribbean Sea from the Rama 
River on the south to the Wawa River on the 
north, a distance of about one hundred and 
sixty- five miles. 

San Juan del Norte, as the Nicaraguans call 
Greytown, is built upon the delta plain of the 
Rio San Juan, which is composed of volcanic 
detritus brought chiefly from the mountainous 
regions of Costa Rica by the San Carlos and 
Serapiqui tributaries. The prevailing northeast 
trades induce a littoral current which flows 
slowly along the coast to the southeastward, 
but its action near shore is more than neu- 
tralized by a northwestward drift due to wave 
action, which transports a portion of the material 
carried by the river and deposits it in the form 
of curved sand-spits approximately parallel to 
the mainland. Thus the delta grows but trends 
to the northward, the spits in course of time 
joining the main delta plain and enclosing 
lagoons which gradually clog up with silt and 
decayed vegetation and become swamps. Grey- 
town harbor was originally formed by one of 
these sandy accretions, but the same agencies 
which produced it have since operated to de- 
stroy it. In 1832 it was a safe and ample har- 
bor with an unobstructed entrance nearly two 
miles wide and thirty feet of water for anchor- 
age. At the present time it is a shallow lagoon 
into which sea-going vessels cannot enter. 



38 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

The town itself presents no features of pecu- 
liar interest; indeed, its similarity to towns in 
the southern part of the United States and the 
prevalence of the English tongue rob it of the 
sleepy charm which attaches to most Central 
American hamlets and almost make the travel- 
ler foroet that he has left his native land. 
There is a plaza, or public square, without 
which no Nicaraguan town could be complete, 
and about it and along the broad main street 
are the principal buildings of the place. These 
are of wood, one or two stories high, neatly 
painted and frequently surrounded by tropical 
foliage. Cocoanut palms nod in the plaza and 
around the houses, while breadfruit and orange 
trees thrive wherever utilitarian or artistic 
considerations have overcome native inertia. 
Shops are numerous and better stocked than 
one would expect, while prices, owing to the 
fact that Greytown is a free port, are very low. 
A horse-railroad, over which a solitary car 
makes infrequent trips, traverses the principal 
thoroughfare, affording transportation facilities 
which, while poor, seem in excess of the de- 
mand. That the property is not remunerative 
may be inferred from the fact that one of our 
men, his sense of humor stimulated by deep 
potations, chartered the conveyance for a day 
for five dollars and, locking himself inside, spent 
the entire time ridinof to and fro, successfullv 



NEW YORK TO GREYTOWN 39 

maintaining his position against the aggrieved 
public until the expiration of his lease. 

While Greytown owes its international im- 
portance to its prospective value as the eastern 
terminus of an interoceanic canal, its position at 
the mouth of the Rio San Juan insures the pas- 
sage through it of a considerable foreign com- 
merce. A line of river steamers brings down 
rubber, coffee, dyewoods, and other products of 
the country, which are shipped abroad, chiefly 
by the Atlas Line steamships, and takes back 
various imported goods for consumption in the 
interior. Thus the town prospers, according 
to Central American standards, even while 
canal construction is at a standstill, but its citi- 
zens look forward with confidence to a resump- 
tion of work and a wave of prosperity which 
shall sweep them on to affluence. When we 
were there it was a town with a recent com- 
mercial past, a past in which the canal had 
seemed a certainty, and in which the three 
great dredgers now rotting in the lagoon were 
hard at work, bringing prosperity to every one. 
The bit of canal three or four thousand feet 
long, the teredo-riddled jetty, the giant dredgers 
falling to pieces in the harbor, and the deserted 
buildings slowly rotting away, are perishing 
monuments of a brave attempt to pierce the 
American isthmus. 



CHAPTER III 

HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 

t I ^HE history of the Mosquito Coast is 
I largely a history of British preten- 
-*- sions to territory and sovereignty and 
of consequent diplomatic controversies. If the 
prior claim of the aborigines be disregarded. 
Central America, discovered by Columbus in 
1502, explored and colonized by Gil Gonzales 
Davila and Francisco Hernandez de Cordova, 
was properly a Spanish possession up to the 
revolution of 1821. But the natural preference 
of Spanish settlers for the sunny western slopes 
left portions of the eastern coast almost unin- 
habited save by Indians, and invited encroach- 
ments which were subsequently made the 
grounds for British claims to territorial rights 
and sovereignty. Early in the seventeenth 
century the Caribbean Sea swarmed with Eng- 
lish, French, and Dutch buccaneers, who, en- 
couraged while disowned by their governments, 
hovered among the coral reefs of Central Amer- 
ica and the West India islands and harassed 
the commerce of Spain. English freebooters 
skirted along the Mosquito Shore, cultivated 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 4 1 

the friendship of the fish-eatiiig Moscoe Indians, 
and finally established headquarters at the 
mouth of the Wanks or Segovia river and in 
Blewfields and Pearl lagoons, making allies of 
the aborigines and forming illicit connections 
with their women. Thus occurred contempo- 
raneously the first English occupation of Nica- 
raguan soil and the initial step in the evolution 
of the hybrid Mosquito Indian. Events which 
followed strengthened the bonds of union be- 
tween the races. The Earl of Warwick, author- 
ized by Charles I., seized the island of Old 
Providence, planted a colony upon it, and estab- 
lished a trading post at Cape Gracias a Dios. 
Settlers and Indians were soon on cordial terms, 
and the native king was eventually persuaded 
to send his son, the heir apparent, to England 
to be educated. Besides encroaching upon the 
Nicaraguan coast, the buccaneers landed at 
Belize and upon the Bay Islands, laying the 
foundation of future British claims, based, it is 
true, upon the unauthorized depredations of 
adventurers, but maintained none the less with 
unscrupulous diplomacy and a strong hand. 
Protests of the Spanish Ambassador at the 
Court of St. James proving ineffective, an ex- 
pedition was fitted out in San Domingo in 1650 
which drove the English from the Bay Islands. 
The latter retaliated by incursions up the San 
Juan River, during one of which, in 1655, they 



42 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

actually succeeded in capturing and plundering 
the city of Granada. In the same year Eng- 
land secured a foothold on the island of Jamaica 
and in 1670 she negotiated with Spain the 
treaty of Madrid, which provided " that the 
most serene King of Great Britain, his heirs 
and successors shall have, hold, keep, and enjoy 
forever, with plenary right of sovereignty, do- 
minion, possession, and propriety, all those 
lands, regions, islands, colonies, and places 
whatsoever, being or situated in the West 
Indies, or any part of America, which the said 
King of Great Britain, or his subjects, do at 
present hold and possess." Up to this time the 
English Government had disclaimed responsi- 
bihty for the depredations of the buccaneers, on 
the ground that they were outlaws, but it now 
became expedient to recognize them as British 
subjects, and they were accordingly induced to 
discard their piratical vocation and to become 
peaceful cutters of mahogany and dye-woods. 
Intent upon retaining their territorial acquisi- 
tions and attendant advantages, they main- 
tained amicable relations with the Moscoes, 
whose Indian blood had been further diluted 
by amalgamation with a shipload of negro 
slaves wrecked upon the coast in 1650, and 
even induced Oldman, the prince of English 
education who had succeeded to the throne 
upon the death of his father, to acknowledge 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 43 

the sovereignty of Charles II. In return for 
his complaisance a commission purporting to 
come from his royal cousin was bestowed upon 
him and he was ceremoniously crowned with 
an old cocked hat. The real power over the 
Mosquito Coast was thus in English hands, but 
the arrangement had not been officially sanc- 
tioned and the attitude of the British Govern- 
ment in case of forcible Spanish intervention 
was deemed somewhat problematical. To 
eliminate this uncertainty Jeremy, who suc- 
ceeded Oldman on the Mosquito throne, was 
despatched to Jamaica in 1687 to petition the 
Governor that he, like his father, be taken 
under the protection of His Majesty's Govern- 
ment. His mission was unsuccessful, but a sec- 
ond attempt in 1720 resulted in the negotiation 
of a treaty whereby a virtual protectorate was 
established over the Mosquito Coast. 

England chose to regard the Madrid treaty 
merely as a recognition of rights already ac- 
quired by her, and as in no wise constraining 
her to conform to already established territorial 
limits. Her woodcutters continued to extend 
their possessions, confident of the ultimate 
recognition and protection of the Home author- 
ities, while Spain, in fancied security, watched 
successive encroachments without resentment. 
Upon the approach of war between the two 
countries, in 1739, the English Government 



44 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

devised a plan of operations against the colo- 
nies of Spain, involving the seizure of the 
Mosquito Shore and the invasion of the San 
Juan valley. Naval operations were begun on 
the eastern and western coasts, and agents were 
sent to Belize and the Mosquito Shore to 
oro-anize the Eng^lish settlers and secure the 
co-operation of the Indians. Robert Hodgson, 
agent to Mosquitoland, formally proclaimed an 
English protectorate, raised the British flag, 
and procured the ratification of the compact by 
both parties. Forts were erected, troops were 
sent over from Jamaica, a colony was estab- 
lished at the mouth of the Black River, the 
island of Ruatan was seized, and finally, in 
1748, the occupation of the Rio San Juan 
valley was attempted and would have been 
accomplished but for the ratification of a treaty 
of peace between the contending Powers. 
Mutual restitution of conquests was agreed to, 
but this seems to have had little influence upon 
England's subsequent policy. Hodgson re- 
mained in Mosquitoland as Superintendent of 
the Shore, protests from the Spanish Govern- 
ment being met by a statement that his pres- 
ence among the Indians was necessary to 
prevent a general massacre of Spaniards. An 
unsuccessful attack by the latter upon the 
colonists at Belize, in 1754, was seized upon by 
the English as a pretext for still further extend- 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 45 

ing their settlements, and in 1756, at the begin- 
ning of the Seven Years' War, they were 
practically in possession of the entire eastern 
shore of Central America. 

The Treaty of Paris, which put an end to 
this conflict in 1763, did not pretend to define 
the sovereign rights of either country on the 
Mosquito Shore, but it was agreed that Eng- 
land should demolish such fortifications as she 
had erected in disputed territory and that in 
return for this concession, her subjects should 
be allowed to cut wood unmolested anywhere 
along the shore. This would seem to be a vir- 
tual admission by Great Britain that her rights 
were of a purely usufructuary nature, but tech- 
nicalities have rarely been allowed to check 
the growth of powerful nations, nor have con- 
siderations of equity always outweighed those 
of expediency in the determination of their 
foreign policies. Nevertheless, her actions at 
this time were of a conciliatory nature. An 
unauthorized and unsuccessful raid by Hodg- 
son upon the San Juan in 1769 resulted in his 
recall, and fortifications were destroyed and 
garrisons removed as had been agreed. The 
Colonial Ofifice did not recede from its pre- 
determined policy, however, and in 1775 Mos- 
quitoland was attached to Jamaica as a 
dependency. The settlers at Belize had mean- 
while established and successfully maintained 



46 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

a government of their own, officially recognized 
by Admiral Burnaby, and the Governor of 
Jamaica was now directed to watch over the 
two infant colonies, which Spain was appar- 
ently willing to relinquish rather than resort 
to force. But the Spanish colonists were less 
indifferent and had already attacked the Eng- 
lish when the outbreak of war, in 1779, aroused 
Spain to renewed activity. An expedition 
against Belize was repulsed by the English, 
who followed up their advantage by again 
attempting to occupy the San Juan valley and 
to take Granada and Leon, thus cutting in 
two the Spanish possessions and gaining per- 
manent control of what was even then recog- 
nized as a practicable route for an inter-oceanic 
canal. The enterprise ended in utter failure, 
for, although Castillo Viejo was successfully 
besieged, disease nearly exterminated the Brit- 
ish forces and necessitated the abandonment 
of the campaign. Of eighteen hundred men 
forming the invading army only three hundred 
survived. This serious misfortune to the Brit- 
ish arms encourao;ed the Governor of Guate- 
mala, who organized an expedition, fell upon 
the Eno-lish colonists and drove them before 
him. The opportune arrival of reinforcements 
from Jamaica reversed the situation, however, 
and the Spanish commander was forced to 
capitulate on August 28th, 1782. 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 47 

The treaty of Versailles was supposed to 
settle definitely and forever the rights of Eng- 
lish settlers in Central America. In it Great 
Britain explicitly admitted Spain's claim to 
sovereignty over the entire Isthmus and under- 
took to confine her own subjects to the settle- 
ment of Belize, where her riorht of losf-cuttinof 
was to remain unimpaired. But she took no 
steps to procure the withdrawal of settlers from 
the Mosquito Coast and Bay Islands, nor were 
the Spanish colonial authorities able to do so. 
In 1786 a supplementary treaty was made, in 
which England again bound herself to limit 
her colonists to the settlement of Belize, pro- 
vided its boundaries were considerably enlarged, 
— a hard condition to which Spain was obliged 
to consent. The ratification of this treaty 
was followed by a general withdrawal of British 
subjects from Mosquitoland and the establish- 
ment by the Spanish Government, in 1791, of 
a port of entry at Greytown ; but the Mosquito 
Indians, instigated by English traders, refused 
to recognize the sovereignty of Spain and suc- 
cessfully resisted all attempts to subdue them. 

A renewal of hostilities between England 
and Spain in 1796 encouraged the settlers at 
Belize, impatient of their territorial limitations, 
to encroach upon the surrounding country, 
while the English Government showed that it 
no longer considered the treaty of 1786 bind- 



48 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

ing by landing several thousand Carib Indians 
from St. Vincent upon the Bay Islands. The 
war ended without any other marked change 
in conditions on the coast, but a subsequent 
ill-advised attack upon Belize by Guatemalan 
troops afforded the colonists a pretext for dis- 
regarding a treaty which the Spanish authori- 
ties had themselves broken and for advancing 
across the boundary to the westward and south- 
ward. By the treaty of Madrid, concluded in 
1814, the conventions of 1783 and 1786 were 
reaffirmed, but while Central American affairs 
were thus theoretically restored to their former 
stahis, as a matter of fact England was in actual 
possession of a greatly increased territory, and 
the previously uninhabited Bay Islands were 
occupied by Carib Indians. Moreover, British 
influence was systematically and persistently 
directed toward the acquisition of the Mosquito 
Coast. In 18 1 6 George Frederick, Crown 
Prince of the Moscoe tribe, was taken to Belize 
and subsequently to Jamaica and England to 
complete his education. Upon the death of 
his father he was ceremoniously crowned at 
Belize "King of the Mosquito Shore and 
Nation " and returned to his native land 
aboard a British man-of-war, only to perish 
shortly afterwards in a drunken brawl. His 
half-brother Robert then ascended the throne, 
but his sympathies were thought to be with 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 49 

the Spaniards and he was accordingly deposed 
by the colonists, who replaced him with a pure- 
blooded negro, George Frederick II. After a 
brief and uneventful reign, this worthy was suc- 
ceeded by another Sambo king, Robert Charles 
Frederick, a spendthrift monarch whose will- 
ingness to barter large tracts of his domain for 
alcoholic stimulants and gaudy raiment re- 
sulted in his deportation to Belize, where he 
died after naming Colonel MacDonald, Super- 
intendent of Belize, regent of Mosquitoland 
during the minority of his children. Mac- 
donalcl deputed Patrick Walker to act in his 
stead, and the latter soon reorganized the gov- 
ernment at Blewfields, retaining the emblems 
of native royalty, but placing the real power in 
English hands. 

In the meantime. Sir John MacGregor had 
obtained from King George Frederick a grant 
of land south of the San Juan over which Mos- 
quitoland claimed jurisdiction through alliances 
with the Poya natives. This grant was sold to 
an English company, which promptly estab- 
lished a colony upon it. The next step was 
to connect the Mosquito Coast settlements 
with Belize, which was done by seizing and 
settling the island of Ruatan while Honduras, 
which had thrown off the Spanish yoke in 1824 
and was now a state of the Central American 
Republic, was occupied with civil strife and 



50 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

unable to offer any opposition. In March, 
1835, the EngHsh residents of BeHze estabhshed 
a colonial government of their own, changed 
the name of their possessions to British Hon- 
duras, announced to Guatemala their assump- 
tion of independence, and in 1840 proclaimed 
the supremacy of English law in British 
Honduras, Ruatan, and Mosquitia. Pending 
an investig-ation of the situation, no formal 
action was taken by the Home Government, 
but commanders of war-ships on the West 
India Station were directed to sustain the 
action of the colonists should need arise. 
With the aid of a naval contingent, Macdonald 
formally occupied Ruatan in 1841, and, con- 
tinuing along the coast in an English frigate, 
accompanied by a sloop-of-war flying the Mos- 
quito flag, stopped at San Juan del Norte and 
demanded of Colonel Quijano, Commandant 
of the port, the recognition of the Mosquito 
King. Quijano very properly refused, where- 
upon he was seized, transported to an unset- 
tled portion of the coast, and left to shift for 
himself. 

These various indignities were naturally re- 
sented by the Central American States, but 
their remonstrances were ignored by Great 
Britain, while an appeal to the United States 
during the Jackson administration was dis- 
missed by the President with the statement 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 5 I 

that interference was deemed inexpedient. The 
fact of the matter seems to have been that the 
Government was ill-informed as to the actual 
state of things and fearful of blundering. 

The annexation of Texas to the United States 
in 1845 stimulated England in her efforts to 
dominate the Isthmus. Macdonald, having 
outlived his usefulness, was recalled, a regular 
Governor and other colonial officials were sent 
to Belize, and Guatemala was officially informed 
by the Secretary of State for the Colonies that 
the settlement of Belize had become the col- 
ony of British Honduras, and extended as far 
south as the Rio Sarstoon. Honduras was 
told, in the same way, that the Crown recog- 
nized Macdonald's seizure of Ruatan, and that 
the island was henceforth to be entirely under 
British control. In 1847, Lord Palmerston 
informed the Central American States that the 
Mosquito Kingdom must be recognized as an 
independent power under the protection of 
Great Britain, and that its territory extended 
" from Cape Honduras down to the mouth of 
the San Juan "; but Chatfield, in transmitting 
the message, added that these boundaries were 
announced "without prejudice to any rights of 
the Mosquito King south of the San Juan," 
thus providing an excuse for southerly exten- 
sion, should it ever be deemed expedient. Of 
course, this bold assumption of practical sov- 



52 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

ereignty by England evoked a storm of protest 
from Central America, particularly from Nicar- 
agua, who was the greatest sufferer, but Great 
Britain's reply to the demurring State was 
ready. The war-ship " Alarm " appeared off 
the port of San Juan, with his Mosquito Majesty 
aboard, and the Commandante was notified to 
replace the Nicaraguan flag with the Mosquito 
ensign and to salute the King. This he refused 
to do, so the English landed a small force, and 
performed the ceremony themselves. 

At a council of the Mosquito nation, held on 
the 8th of December, 1847, resolutions were 
adopted calling upon Nicaragua to immediately 
evacuate the port of San Juan. This demand 
was carried to the Nicaraguan authorities in 
the interior by Chatfield, whose absolute refusal 
to consider any suggestions of arbitration was 
evidently due to a desire to encourage a resort 
to arms. Nicaragua placed a small force in the 
field, intending to defend the port, but before her 
troops reached their destination, three English 
war-ships were anchored off the town, which lay 
completely at their mercy. The native soldiery 
was obliged to retreat up the river to Sarapiqui, 
and to remain inactive, while, on the ist of 
January, 1848, English marines landed, raised 
and saluted the Mosquito flag, and installed an 
Anglo-Mosquito government. The name of 
the port was changed to Greytown, in honor 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 53 

of Governor Sir Charles Grey of Jamaica, to 
whose endeavors its seizure by the English, in 
behalf of their hypothetical allies, was largely 
due. But the British claims were still in need 
of strengthening, and, as a means towards this 
end, an armed attack by Nicaraguan troops was 
cleverly provoked. All that was necessary was 
the removal of the war-ships, for, no sooner 
had they gone than the exasperated natives 
descended the river, and on January loth drove 
the officials of the new government from the 
town. This act was stigmatized by Great 
Britain as an unwarrantable outrage, and, on 
the 8th of February, the " Vixen " and "Alarm " 
again took possession of the port. Captain 
Loch, with two hundred and sixty marines, ^ 
followed the retreating Nicaraguans" upstream, 
took the fort at Sarapiqui, and actuall}^ reached 
and besieged Granada, compelling the Nicar- 
aguan Government to accept the terms of peace 
laid down by him. On the 7th of March, Nic- 
aragua formally and forever relinquished to the 
Mosquito King the sovereignty which she had 
claimed over Greytown, and shortly afterwards 
an English commandant was installed, and the 
cruisers sailed away. 

Great Britain's intention of seizing San Juan 
was known to the United States Government 
some time before it was carried into effect, but 
although the Monroe Doctrine had by this 



54 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

time become inextricably interwoven with the 
fabric of our national life, President Polk de- 
liberately neglected this excellent opportunity 
of applying it in the face of actual European 
aggression. By the time general attention was 
attracted to Isthmian affairs by the " Com- 
pania de Transito de Nicaragua," an associa- 
tion of Northern capitalists, the coup had been 
accomplished : but the storm of popular indig- 
nation evoked induced the Polk administration 
to send a special agent, Mr. Hise, to Central 
America, giving him, however, so little power 
that any of his acts might readily be disowned 
as unauthorized. Quite without instructions, 
he negotiated a treaty with Nicaragua, directly 
controverting British claims and giving to the 
United States or "a company of the citizens 
thereof " exclusive interoceanic transit rights 
in return for a formal recognition of Nicar- 
agua's territorial claims and a promise of pro- 
tection. The treaty failed of ratification ; 
indeed, it was never submitted to the Senate ; 
and an opportune change of administration 
facilitated a disavowal of the acts of Mr. Hise, 
and led to the appointment of Mr. E. G. Squier 
as his successor. Mr. Squier showed himself 
quite as hostile to British interests as Mr. Hise 
had been, but he used more judgment in his 
opposition, and was largely instrumental in 
procuring a favorable concession for " The 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 55 

American Atlantic and Pacific Ship-Canal 
Company," an organization in which the 
" Compania de Transito de Nicaragua " had 
been merged, and which was controlled prin- 
cipally by Cornelius Vanderbilt. The conces- 
sion carried a monopoly of steam navigation 
on Nicaragua's inland waters, and granted land 
for purposes of colonization, while by a treaty 
simultaneously negotiated, the United States 
agreed to recognize and defend Nicaragua's 
sovereignty along the entire line of the pro- 
jected canal. 

Meanwhile the English, having secured con- 
trol of the eastern terminus, set about acquiring 
a dominant position near the proposed western 
outlet in the Gulf of Fonseca. Their first step 
was to press an old claim for damages against 
Honduras, threatening Truxillo with bombard- 
ment unless immediate payment was made. 
Anticipating the probable outcome, Mr. Squier 
concluded a hasty treaty with the Government 
of Honduras, by which the United States was 
to acquire land for naval purposes on Tigre 
Island and for fortifications upon the adjacent 
shore of the Gulf of Fonseca. Pendino; the 
ratification of the treaty, Tigre Island was ceded 
to the United States for eighteen months, giv- 
ing her, for the time, at least, control of the 
western terminus as well as of the canal line. 
Of course this interfered seriously with English 



56 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

projects. The demonstration against Truxillo 
was abandoned, and Chatfield, who had been 
insisting upon a settlement of the British 
claims, hurried to the Pacific coast, where, with 
the aid of a naval force, he seized upon Tigre 
Island. Squier immediately asserted the sov- 
ereignty of the United States and ordered the 
English to withdraw, a demand which was 
promptly refused, and which was thereupon 
repeated with the statement that a failure to 
comply within six days would be regarded by 
the United States as an unwarrantable act of 
aaferession. Matters were thus in a critical 
state when the situation was relieved by the in- 
tervention of the Washington government and 
the negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 
intended to fix definitely and finally the status 
of the two rival powers in Central America. 

This treaty resulted directly from the publi- 
cation of the provisions of the unconfirmed 
Hise compact, which, by recognizing Nicara- 
gua's claim to sovereignty from sea to sea, 
conflicted with the terms of the Loch treaty, 
urtder which Nicaragua had virtually resigned 
to England the entire eastern coast. An 
understanding between Great Britain and the 
United States became necessary, and Mr. 
Clayton, Secretary of State under the Taylor 
administration, embarrassed by the hostility of 
the Senate, decided to carry on negotiations in 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 5/ 

secret until a satisfactory agreement had been 
reached. He therefore explained his position 
to the British Minister, offering to abandon the 
Hise treaty, and to aid in obtaining treaties 
from Nicaragua favorable to both Powers, 
provided Great Britain would assume a posi- 
tion in regard to the Mosquito claim which 
should prevent its forming an obstacle. Lord 
Palmerston, to whom this proposition was sub- 
mitted, responded favorably, the more readily 
that Mr. Clayton tacitly admitted the British 
claims to the Mosquito shore, despite earnest 
protests from Mr. Lawrence, American min- 
ister to England. To facilitate negotiations, 
Sir Henry Bulwer was sent as temporary min- 
ister to Washington. Soon after his arrival he 
reported to Lord Palmerston that, in his opinion, 
American interest in the Nicaragua- Mosquito 
dispute was due to American ownership of a 
canal concession, and recommended that the 
Mosquito question be kept distinct from the 
present discussion, and that American com- 
merce be granted such privileges as would 
ensure the ratification of the treaty. Just at 
this time the unexpected news of the British 
occupation of Tigre Island aroused the Senate 
to prompt action upon the Squier treaty, which 
was at once brought up and referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations for immediate 
consideration. The Committee called for all 



58 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

papers relating to the subject, but Mr. Clayton 
refused to submit them, upon the plea that 
negotiations looking; to a settlement of the mat- 
ter were then in progress. Realizing that his 
projects would fail unless an agreement was 
speedily reached, he urged Sir Henry Bulwer 
to immediate action, and showed an eagerness 
of which the latter was not slow to avail him- 
self by stipulating that England should be 
given an equal voice in the control of the 
canal, and that she should remain in undis- 
turbed enjoyment of her rights along the San 
Juan in return for a disavowal of Chatfield's 
seizure of Tigre Island. The acts of their bel- 
ligerent agents in Honduras were thereupon 
disowned by both governments, and the famous 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty was drafted, submitted 
to Lord Palmerston, and signed on the 19th 
of April, 1850. It was in substance as fol- 
lows: Neither Great Britain nor the United 
States shall ever acquire or maintain exclusive 
control of the canal, nor shall they assume con- 
trol of, directly or by means of alliances, or 
protectorates, nor fortify, any part of Central 
America ; they shall jointly guarantee the neu- 
trality of the canal, and shall afford protection 
to any legitimate company undertaking its con- 
struction : and they shall, in general, protect 
all lines of interoceanic communication across 
the Isthmus. The treaty in this form was rati- 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 59 

fied by the Senate, in the beHef that England 
had abandoned her policy of territorial expan- 
sion, and stood ready to co-operate with the 
United States in the establishment and main- 
tenance of a neutral transit route, but subse- 
quent correspondence between Mr. Clayton 
and Sir Henry Bulwer changed the whole 
aspect of affairs. Sir Henry claimed that the 
provisions of the convention forbidding colo- 
nization did not apply to the British settlement 
in Honduras, or its " dependencies," the Bay 
Islands and Mosquito Coast, and Mr. Clayton 
weakly conceded the point, while avoiding a 
direct admission of England's title to the so- 
called "dependencies." The treaty, as thus 
amended, never came before the Senate, and 
before its promulgation in its original form 
Mr. Clayton filed the correspondence, which 
he alone had read, among the archives of the 
State Department. Thus, as far as the treaty 
went, England was left in possession of all that 
she had claimed, while the United States was 
forever excluded from the Isthmus. Some years 
elapsed, however, before this was generally 
known, and meanwhile the Hise and Squier 
conventions were irrevocably abandoned. 

Enthusiasts who thought the Central Ameri- 
can question setded were doomed to speedy 
disappointment, for hardly had the Clayton- 
Bulwer agreement been signed when an Eng- 



6o OCEAN TO OCEAN 

lish war-ship landed marines at Greytown. 
Mr. Chatfield explained this action to the 
astonished Nicaraguans by asserting that the 
United States had recognized the sovereignty 
of the Mosquito King, and he suggested that, 
as Nicaragua had by the Loch treaty relin- 
quished all claim to the east coast, her govern- 
ment would do well to confine its attention to 
its own territory. But the United States had 
also to be reckoned with, and the inevitable 
crisis was precipitated by the action of Anglo- 
Mosquito customs officials in attempting to 
collect port dues from an American vessel. 
Payment was refused, an English man-of-war 
fired upon the American craft, and our govern- 
ment promptly called upon Great Britain for 
an explanation. Lord Granville, who had suc- 
ceeded Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary, 
disavowed the whole affair, asserting that the 
commander of the war-ship had acted without 
orders and that his government would not 
sustain the claims of the Greytown officials. 
Thereupon an attempt was made to finally 
adjust the differences which had arisen, and 
an agreement was drawn up, subject to the 
approval of the Central American States con- 
cerned : but Nicaragua, jealous of certain con- 
cessions granted to Costa Rica, refused to 
assent to the conditions, and matters reverted 
to their former state. 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 6 1 

A new complication arose from England's 
action in proclaiming, on the seventeenth of July, 
1852, " The Colony of the Bay Islands." Since 
Macdonald's seizure of Ruatan in 1841, British 
authority in the Islands had been poorly main- 
tained, and the ratification of the Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty by England was assumed by the 
United States to have terminated whatever 
claims to sovereignty she had ever had. Now, 
however, during the discussion in the Senate 
caused by Great Britain's apparent aggression, 
Sir Henry Bulwer's all-important reservations 
and Mr. Clayton's note of acceptance were first 
made public. Popular indignation knew no 
bounds. Clayton was openly accused of having 
betrayed his country, and Senators who had 
voted for the ratification of the treaty asserted 
that they would never have done so had 
they known all of its provisions. But the 
existing situation had to be faced, and as the 
only solution of the difficulty seemed to lie in 
proving that neither the Bay Islands nor the 
Mosquito Coast were " dependencies " of Hon- 
duras, an attempt was made to do so. After 
a careful examination of evidence the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations decided that the 
position was tenable, and a resolution was 
drafted and passed by the Senate declaring the 
establishment of an English colony in the Bay 
Islands, as well as the British claims to the 



62 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Mosquito Coast, to be in direct violation of 
the provisions of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. 
Another diplomatic agent, Mr. Borland, was 
sent to the Isthmus, while Mr. Buchanan was 
entrusted with the task of laying our case 
before Her Majesty's government and insisting 
upon English withdrawal from the alleged 
"dependencies" of British Honduras. Lord 
Clarendon, then Foreign Secretary, replied that 
Belize had never been part of Central America, 
but a British colony; that the Bay Islands 
were properly a dependency of British Hon- 
duras ; that the maintenance of a Mosquito 
protectorate was not at variance with the terms 
of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, which merely 
prohibited further colonization by either con- 
tracting power: and finally, that Her Majesty's 
Government would not recognize the Monroe 
Doctrine as based upon any principle of inter- 
national law, nor submit to further questioning 
as to her ri<jhts in Central America. The 
attitudes assumed by the two Powers were thus 
diametrically opposed, and the treaty should 
have been abrogated upon the ground of 
mutual misunderstanding ; but Congress pre- 
ferred to relieve its feelings in heated discus- 
sions which intensified British hostility without 
accomplishing any good. At last a crisis was 
reached at Greytown, where the relations of 
the Transit Company's American employees 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 6^ 

and the British element had become more and 
more strained. Captain Smith, of one of the 
Transit Company's steamers, shot a Mosquito 
negro and took refuge with the American 
Minister, Mr. Borland, who refused to surren- 
der him to the Anglo-Mosquito authorities. 
A mob attacked the consulate, which Borland 
and Smith occupied, and a relief force from the 
American steamer " The Northern Lio;ht " was 
fired upon by the town authorities while at- 
tempting to land : but during the following 
night the Minister and his unpopular guest 
escaped to the American ship, which sailed 
north after landing a volunteer guard to pro- 
tect the property of the Transit Company. 
Upon learning of this outrage to its rep- 
resentative, the United States despatched the 
sloop-of-war " Cyane," Captain Hollins, to 
Greytown to obtain satisfaction. This he 
did by bombarding the place, despite the pro- 
tests of the British naval commander present, 
who refused to move his ship out of range 
until the " Cyane's " guns were trained upon 
her, and who asserted that only his inferi- 
ority in armament prevented forcible interven- 
tion. A provisional government was established 
by American residents, and had we been in a 
position to pursue a settled policy the incident 
might have been greatly to our advantage ; but 
unfortunately the United States was already 



64 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

distracted by conditions which finally culmi- 
nated in the Civil War, the views of contend- 
ing political parties differing so radically as 
to make national policy a factional matter not 
to be depended upon. 

The appearance upon the Isthmus of Wil- 
liam Walker, an American called in by the 
Liberal party in Nicaragua to aid in the strug- 
gle against their Servile opponents, introduced 
a new element of discord. A successful cam- 
paign under his leadership resulted in the 
establishment of a Liberal government, with 
Patricio Rivas as president, but with Walker 
as eeneral-in-chief and real dictator. His ac- 
tion in driving Kinney, an adventurer thought 
to be devoted to British interests, from the 
eastern shore, secured him the warm support 
of all his compatriots in the country, regardless 
of political proclivities. President Pierce's ad- 
ministration was therefore awkwardly placed 
when a duly accredited Nicaraguan minister 
arrived in Washington. Either he must be 
received, a proceeding sure to antagonize the 
abolitionists, who looked upon Walker's cam- 
paign as a mere device to promote the south- 
ward spread of slavery, or he must be sent 
about his business, which would offend those 
in whom Great Britain's encroachments upon 
the Isthmus had awakened feelings of resent- 
ment. In this dilemma Secretary Marcy at- 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 65 

tempted to pursue a temporizing policy, 
declining to receive the Nicaraguan represen- 
tative until he could ascertain whether the new 
government was a legitimate one, thus sacri- 
ficing a proffered means of diplomatic commu- 
nication at a time when a free interchange of 
views was particularly desirable. 

Annoyed at the Administration's unfriendli- 
ness, and convinced that the Nicaraguan Gov- 
ernment had been systematically defrauded by 
the Transit Company, Walker induced Presi- 
dent Rivas to annul its charter and to seize 
its property. This proceeding, while perhaps 
justifiable, was highly impolitic, for it antag- 
onized Mr. Vanderbilt and other influential 
magnates of the Company, and at the same 
time interrupted traffic with California and cut 
off the filibusters' supply of recruits and muni- 
tions of war. Supplied with arms by Vander- 
bilt, and secretly encouraged by Great Britain, 
Costa Rica attacked her old rival, driving 
Walker and his forces to Granada and taking 
possession of the Canal Company's property. 
Letters which seemed to prove that England 
was encouraging hostilities for purposes of her 
own were forwarded to Washington by the 
American diplomatic agent, and again the 
question of abrogating the Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty was agitated, while a revulsion of feel- 
ing in official circles led to the reception of a 

S 



66 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Nicaraguan minister. Having secured the 
recognition of his countrymen, Walker had 
himself elected President, and was inaugurated 
on the twelfth of July, 1856. On the twenty- 
second of the following September he annulled 
the Federal Act of April seventeenth, 1824, 
abolishing slavery in the then constituent states 
of Central America, thus displaying the ultimate 
purpose of his expedition, and thereby antagoniz- 
ing the natives, without whose support he could 
not succeed. Failing of anticipated assistance 
from the pro-slavery faction in the United States, 
deserted by many of his former adherents, and 
surrounded at Rivas by a large force of foemen, 
he was forced to surrender to Captain Davis, 
of the U.S. S. "St. Mary's," who had been 
/despatched to San Juan del Sur to rescue and 
deport the besieged filibusters. But notwith- 
standing the perfunctory opposition of the 
American authorities, he returned with two 
hundred adventurers to Greytown, where he 
was seized by Commodore Paulding and car- 
ried to New York, to the great disgust of Presi- 
dent Buchanan, who was disposed to look 
favorably upon his projects. Still undiscour- 
aged, he made a fresh attempt, landing on the 
island of Ruatan, and afterwards capturing 
Truxillo, on the mainland. Hardly had the 
town fallen, however, when a British man-of- 
war appeared and demanded the surrender of 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 6/ 

the filibusters. Resistance was useless, and 
Walker laid down- his arms, relying upon the 
English captain's promise of protection. How 
well the promise was kept the sequel showed, 
for he was treacherously given over by his cap- 
tor to the Honduran authorities, who court- 
martialled and shot him. Thus perished, on 
the twelfth of September, i860, the chief ex- 
ponent of forcible American domination of 
Central America. 

In 1856 the United States made another 
effort to reach an understanding with Great 
Britain in regard to Central American affairs, 
and an agreement was drawn up in which 
Eno-land bound herself to abandon the Mos- 
quito protectorate, and to cede the Bay Islands 
to Honduras. This was conditional, however, 
upon the ratification by Honduras of two 
treaties with England, in which it was agreed 
that the Bay Islands should constitute a free 
territory, with local self-government under 
purely nominal Honduran control, and that the 
Mosquito protectorate in Honduras should be 
abandoned upon similar conditions. These 
nominal concessions, made in the interests of 
the Honduras Interoceanic Railway Company, 
would really have left England as well off as 
before, a fact which the United States Senate 
was shrewd enough to see, and which caused 
the rejection of the proposed convention. 



68 OCEA.V TO OCEAN 

Diplomatic methods having failed, President 
Buchanan called upon Congress to abrogate 
the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. This Great Britain 
naturally wished to avoid, and she attempted 
to do so by offering concessions with impossi- 
ble conditions attached. Thus, she suggested 
submitting disputed points to arbitration before 
a European power, well knowing that, as the 
Monroe doctrine was involved, the result was 
a foregone conclusion; and she even agreed 
to abrogate the treaty, provided we would 
admit all that she had claimed by recognizing 
the snafus quo of 1852. These suggestions 
seem to have modified Buchanan's opinions 
somewhat, and to have caused him to recede 
from his aggressive position. Meanwhile, Sir 
William Ouseley was sent to Central America 
by England to pursue a conciliatory policy, 
and to nefrotiate treaties favorable to British 
interests. The time was propitious, and his 
efforts resulted in the conclusion of three 
agreements, with Guatemala, Honduras, and 
Nicaragua respectively. The Guatemalan 
boundary was adjusted greatly to England's 
advantao-e; Honduras was 2:iven nominal con- 

CD ■ O 

trol of the Bay Islands and the Mosquito 
reservation which she had claimed, subject to 
certain conditions ; Nicaragua acquired the 
nominal sovereignty of the Mosquito reserv^a- 
tion within her borders, although provisions for 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 69 

local self-government practically prevented the 
exercise of any control by her ; and Greytown 
became a free port of Nicaragua, with an in- 
dependent municipal government of its own. 
In return for these apparent concessions, Eng- 
land acquired rights which were of material 
benefit to her, and which greatly strengthened 
her position upon the Isthmus. 

By the treaty of Managua, the government 
of the Mosquito Shore was relinquished to 
a lot of Indians and Jamaica negroes, who, 
supported by English settlers, antagonized the 
American residents, and induced them to 
support Nicaragua in her refusal to pay a 
promised annual subvention, and in her fre- 
quent interference in local affairs. The United 
States, seeing a chance to restore the cordial 
relations which semi-official filibustering had 
disturbed, sustained Nicaragua, with the result 
that a treaty was concluded between the two 
countries in June, 1868. This convention was L-^ 
somewhat similar to the rejected Squier com- 
pact, although we were prevented by the 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty from assuming exclu- 
sive privileges, and while it has never been 
thought entirely satisfactory, it has remained 
in force ever since. 

Early in 1876 a commission, appointed by 

' President Grant to examine into the relative 

merits and defects of various canal routes re- 



70 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

ported ill favor of that through Nicaragua. If 
the United States was determined to construct 
and control the canal, as seemed to be the 
case, the Clayton-Bulwer treaty must be modi- 
fied, but overtures looking to the accomplish- 
\ ment of this end were abandoned, owing to 
Nicaragua's shortsighted refusal to grant the 
necessary concessions unless reimbursed for 
the bombardment of Grey town. The treaty 
continued to constitute a serious obstacle to 
the establishment of the canal project upon a 
suitable basis, and a widespread sentiment in 
favor of abrogation crystallized in 1880 in the 
form of a joint resolution passed by Congress 
requesting the President to take immediate 
steps for the final termination of the conven- 
tion of 1850. It thus devolved upon Secretary 
Blaine to open the discussion with England 
anew, and he did so by means of a circular 
letter to the American ministers abroad, stating 
that, while the United States had no desire to 
interfere in the commercial management of 
an interoceanic canal, she was, nevertheless, 
determined to maintain political control of 
the route as a precautionary measure, while 
guaranteeing its absolute neutrality. But, some 
months prior to the despatch of this letter, 
England had suddenly compelled Nicaragua, 
which had for years failed to pay the Mosquito 
Indians the annual subvention promised under 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 7 1 

the Managua treaty of i860, to submit disputed 
points to the Emperor of Austria for arbitra- 
tion. The result, announced in July, 1881, 
was practically a reafHrmation of the Mosquito 
protectorate, and a justification of England's 
attitude in Central American affairs. Never- 
theless, Blaine showed no disposition to recede 
from his position : indeed, he submitted through 
our minister in London a long argument in 
favor of modification or abrogation of the 
treaty, based upon changed conditions and the 
professed advantages of placing a neutral canal 
under the control of the country least likely 
to be engaged in war. A long diplomatic 
struggle ensued, in which England stubbornly 
maintained her ground, and had distinctly the 
best of it. 

As has been said, the government of the 
Mosquito coast fell into the hands of Indians 
and Jamaica negroes when the treaty of i860 
took effect, but an influx of foreigners resulted 
in a practical change of rulers and rapid com- 
mercial growth. Nicaragua looked with long- 
ing eyes upon the reservation, and when, in 
1894, Honduran troops crossed the border, she 
occupied the town of Blewfields upon pretence 
of resisting a threatened invasion. Clarence, 
chief of the Mosquitos, protested, and Ameri- 
can and English war-ships were ordered to the 
spot. The old " Kearsarge," representing the 



72 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

United States, was wrecked upon Roncador 
reef, leaving the English to become masters of 
the situation upon their arrival. Marines were 
landed, the authority of the Mosquito dynasty 
was proclaimed, and a provisional government 
was established. But the United States 
promptly interfered, demanded and obtained 
the withdrawal of the British forces, and left 
the Nicaraguan Government in control of af- 
fairs. An insurrection immediately occurred, 
American and English citizens implicated were 
arrested and banished, and excitement ran 
hip-h. But the decree of banishment arainst 
the Americans was soon removed, and the 
United States lent her aid to Nicaragua in 
inducing the Mosquitos to incorporate them- 
selves voluntarily in the latter country. On 
the 2oth of November, 1894, the Indian res- 
ervation became a part of Nicaragua, and 
England was without an excuse for farther 
interference. It may be questioned, however, 
whether this state of things will last, for as late 
as August 24th, 1900, a delegation from Blew- 
fields waited upon the Governor of Jamaica, to 
express dissatisfaction with the existing govern- 
ment, and to request British intervention. 

In 1900 an effort was made to supersede the 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty by one under the terms 
of which the United States might construct 
and operate an interoceanic canal, but the 



HISTORICAL AND DIPLOMATIC 73 

convention signed by Secretary Hay and Lord 
Pauncefote proved unacceptable to the Senate 
and was so radically amended as to be rejected 
by the English Government. It has been 
charged that its mutilation in the Senate 
was inspired by interests antagonistic to the 
canal project, but such influences, if exerted, 
can have had but little weight. The real rea- 
son seems to have been a widespread feeling 
that the United States should be at liberty to 
fortify the canal, and, in general, to administer 
its own property in its own way, regardless of 
other nations. 

A subsequent treaty, signed by the same 
plenipotentiaries on the i8th of November, 
1 90 1, was more fortunate, and was ratified by 
the Senate on the i6th of the following De- 
cember. By its terms the United States may 
build and operate an interoceanic canal, which 
shall be open to vessels of all nations on terms 
of perfect equality. It shall not be blockaded, 
nor shall any act of war be committed within " 
it or within three marine miles of its termini, 
but the United States may maintain a military 
police sufficient for its protection. 

Thus after years of effort the last political 
obstacle to governmental intervention has been 
removed, and the long-sought passage to the 
Indies may soon become a geographic reality. 



CHAPTER IV 

PHYSICAL CONSIDERATIONS 

THE portion of Nicaragua whose topog- 
raphy bears directly upon the problem 
of canal construction consists of a broad 
depression bounded on the south by the high 
volcanic rans^e of northern Costa Rica, and on 
the north by the mountainous portion of Nica- 
ragua. Within this depression lie Lake Nica- 
ragua, Lake Managua, and the Rio San Juan, a 
stream which carries nearly the entire drainage 
of this reofion to the Caribbean Sea. In former 
days the continental divide, now west of the 
lake, ran north and south about where the town 
of Castillo stands, and the present valley of the 
San Juan was occupied by two streams, one 
flowing eastward to the Caribbean Sea, the 
other westward to a bay of the Pacific Ocean 
since inclosed by a barrier of volcanic ejecta 
and now forming part of Lake Nicaragua. 

Traversing the Nicaraguan depression from 
north to south are ranges of hills whose sum- 
mits, decreasing in height from the axis of the 
isthmus to the coasts, mark the former level of 
an undulating plain formed by the action of 



PHYSICAL CONSIDERATIONS 75 

streams flowing east and west from the old con- 
tinental divide. This plain was subsequently 
destroyed by the erosive action of streams, 
chiefly during a period when the land was 
much higher than it now is. A comparatively 
recent subsidence of the earth's crust plunged 
portions of the river valleys below sea level, 
causing them to silt up and form the broad 
alluvial plains characteristic of their lower 

reaches. 

Residual hills, surviving the general process 
of degradation because of inherent hardness or 
fortunate positions upon divides, rise at places 
above the level of the old plain, particularly 
along the axis of the isthmus. If the plain 
were restored, it would extend across the isth- 
mus through gaps in these residual hills, and at 
an altitude varying from one hundred to two 
hundred feet above the sea. 

In order to obtain a clear idea of the Nica- 
raguan depression, it will be well to trace the 
method in which it was presumably formed. 
It is probable that prior to the formation of 
the plain already mentioned, a plateau, increas- 
ing in altitude to the north and south, extended 
from the Caribbean Sea to the east side of that 
portion of Lake Nicaragua which was then a 
part of the Pacific Ocean. The continental 
divide was about where Castillo now is, and 
from it streams flowed east and west along the 



^6 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

present location of the San Juan valley, gradu- 
ally reducing large portions of their drainage 
areas to base level, and cutting back toward 
the divide. After a long period of degradation, 
the land was slowly elevated to a height some 
two hundred feet orreater than that which it 
now occupies, greatly increasing the erosive ac- 
tion of its streams, particularly near the coast, 
where the plain already formed was soon deeply 
dissected by the same agents which had made 
it. A subsequent subsidence of the country 
gradually submerged the lower portions of these 
eroded valleys, checking the current and allow- 
ing a precipitation of alluvium which resulted 
in the formation of silted estuaries. In the 
lower valley of the Rio San Juan the deposit 
of alluvium was such that the present river 
follows very nearly the bed of the old stream, 
although in places it has left its former channel, 
and cut a new one for itself. In the upper San 
Juan valley, however, the existing channel has 
been determined largely by the amount of sedi- 
ment brought down by tributaries, the main 
stream having been pushed from side to side of 
the valley by the deltas of its affluents. 

The delta formation which characterizes the 
mouth of the Rio San Juan is of recent and 
constantly increasing growth. Sediment, most 
of it from the Sarapiqui and San Carlos tribu- 
taries, is delivered somewhat faster than it can 



PHYSICAL CONSIDERATIONS 77 

be distributed by the littoral current, so that 
the delta grows outward and northward, as 
explained in Chapter 11. Its outer edge is but 
a few feet above sea level, and it rises to the 
westward at the rate of about one and a half 
feet per mile. Its surface is dotted with lagoons, 
some formed by the junction of sand-spits with 
the mainland, and some by unequal sedimenta- 
tion due to the interposition of islands or other 
obstacles to a uniform deposition of sand. These 
lagoons gradually become choked by vegeta- 
tion, and silt up until their consistency is such 
that forest trees grow upon them, and all trace 
of the lagoons is lost. Numerous low hills, the 
products of rock decay, rise above the delta 
plain, as they probably once rose above the sea. 
The promontory which separated the Pacific 
Ocean from the Bay of Nicaragua, afterwards 
impounded and transformed into a lake, was 
subjected to influences similar to those de- 
scribed as acting throughout the main Nica- 
raguan depression. In the present Rio Grande 
valley the divide, originally near the Pacific coast, 
moved eastward as the river cut back toward 
its source, adding new territory to its drainage 
area, and gradually diverting eastward-flowing 
streams to its own channel. The greater activ- 
ity of the Pacific streams was due to their lesser 
length and consequently swifter current, for the 
streams flowing to the eastward then reached 



78 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

sea level about where the island of Ometepe 
now is. The present continental divide, be- 
tween the valleys of the Rio Grande and Rio 
Las Lajas, is a broad plain so level that its 
summit, 154 feet above the sea, can be deter- 
mined only by careful instrumental work. 

Accompanying the period of depression al- 
ready referred to as causing the silting up of 
the mouths of rivers was an outbreak of volcanic 
activity, which resulted in the formation of a 
range of craters parallel to the western coast 
and coincident with the axis of the Bay of Ni- 
caragua. Ejecta from these volcanic vents 
gradually built a barrier, impounding the waters 
of the bay and forming a lake, whose level rose 
with successive additions to the height of the 
barrier. As the lake was fed by streams whose 
united discharge exceeded the loss by evapora- 
tion, the surplus water presumably escaped to 
the Pacific Ocean, perhaps through the Rio 
Grande valley, until the lake surface rose to 
such a height as to flow over the continental 
divide at Castillo and into the stream which 
occupied the lower San Juan valley. The di- 
vide at that point probably consisted of deeply 
weathered rock which yielded readily to erosion 
and allowed the water to cut its way rapidly to 
its present position, leaving the western outlet, 
with its harder bed, as a new continental divide. 
The presence of sharks in Lake Nicaragua 



PHYSICAL CONSIDERATIONS 79 

tends to substantiate this theory of its forma- 
tion, since they are of a species common in the 
Pacific Ocean, but unknown in the Caribbean 
Sea. The lake is a hundred miles long and 
forty-five miles wide, or about one-third the size 
of Lake Erie. 

Of prime importance in determining the 
practicability of the Nicaragua canal is a study 
of the earthquake phenomena of the region, 
and a consideration of the danger to massive 
structures to be apprehended from their prob- 
able recurrence. Most earthquakes are the 
result either of explosions at a greater or less 
depth beneath the surface, or of dislocations of 
the earth's crust consequent upon an uneven 
elevation or depression of the country. The 
latter class of disturbances is hardly more likely 
to occur in the canal region than elsewhere, 
and its consideration may therefore be neg- 
lected, but the explosive type of earthquake is 
characteristic of volcanic regions, and is a pos- 
sible source of danger in some parts of Central 
America. 

The only recent manifestations of volcanic 
activity in the neighborhood of the canal line 
have been in the Costa Rican range bounding 
the Nicaraguan depression on the south, and 
in the Nicaraguan rans^e extending: from the 
Gulf of Fonseca to the twin peaks of Ometepe 
and Madera. In the former range one peak 



8o OCEAN TO OCEAN 

has been in a state of eruption within historic 
times, in 1726. Of the Nicaraguan chain, Ma- 
dera, the southernmost peak, is extinct and 
crumbHng. Ometepe, on the same island, dis- 
charges small quantities of steam and sulphur- 
ous gases, but has been otherwise inactive since 
1883, when a trifling eruption occurred. Mom- 
bacho, on the mainland near Granada, has been 
extinct for ages and is crumbling to decay. 
The last eruption of Masaya, in 1858, was 
merely an overflow of molten basaltic lava. 
Momotobo, at the northern end of Lake Ma- 
nagua, emits large volumes of vapor and occa- 
sionally shows other signs of activity. 

It will thus be seen that volcanic activity 
near the canal line is in a state of decadence and 
that, judging from appearances, any further 
outbreak will be likely to occur near the middle 
of one of the volcanic ranges. When it is re- 
membered that the destructive effect of an 
earthquake is limited to a comparatively small 
area immediately surrounding the epicentrum, 
there seems to be no reason for anticipating 
destructive shocks along the line of the pro- 
posed canal. Experience tends to show the 
soundness of this deduction, for shocks which 
have done much damage in Leon and Mana- 
gua have been quite harmless at Rivas. 

The San Juan river may be divided into 
three sections, the first extending from the lake 



PHYSICAL CONSIDERATIONS 8 1 

to the head of the Toro rapids, the second from 
the head of the Toro rapids to the mouth of 
the San Carlos river, and the third from the 
mouth of the San Carlos river to the sea. 

Throughout the upper division, twenty-seven 
miles in length, the river flows through an 
alluvial plain formed in what was once the lake 
by sediment brought down by tributaries. Shel- 
tered from the prevailing northeast winds, the 
alluvial deposit has grown westward, notwith- 
standing the eastward flowing current of the 
main river. This portion of the stream is deep, 
with a moderate current, and its banks are 
swampy, except where its meanderings bring 
it against the base of some neighboring hill. 
As I have already explained, the upper Rio San 
Juan has been deflected from the old river bed 
in places by the deltas of tributary streams, and 
it is obvious that, in order to locate a canal re- 
quiring a minimum amount of excavation in 
hard underlying material, the old channel 
should be traced and utilized as much as 
practicable. 

The second division, from the head of the 
Toro rapids to the mouth of the Rio San Car- 
los, flows through a narrow valley and is charac- 
terized by a fall averaging two feet to the mile, 
eighty-five per cent of which occurs at numer- 
ous rapids. The Toro rapids are formed by a 
barrier of boulders, clay, and sand, deposited by 

6 



82 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the Rio Sabalos tributary when that portion of 
the valley was an arm of the lake, and before 
the old continental divide was cut down to its 
present elevation. The other rapids are due to 
the varying hardness of the underlying rock. 
Portions of the river bed in the lower part of 
this division are below sea level, showing that 
it was formed when the land was much higher 
than at present, and that the greater part of 
such sediment as now reaches it from its trib- 
utaries is transported by the waters of the main 
stream. 

The third division of the Rio San Juan, from 
the mouth of the San Carlos river to the sea, is 
quite different in character from either of the 
preceding ones. Its waters are swift, turbid, 
and shallow, and the channel shifts continually. 
This is due to the San Carlos and Sarapiqui 
tributaries, which, heading in the mountains of 
northern Costa Rica, transport and furnish to 
the main stream large quantities of sand, thus 
supplying material for the river's flood plain 
and helping to push the delta seaward year by 
year. The low^er San Juan's sharp bend to the 
left is due to the northward sand-drift along 
the coast, caused by wave action, and the Rio 
Colorado is a comparatively new channel cut 
by the water in its effort to reach the sea with- 
out traversing the constantly increasing terri- 
tory to the northward. 



PHYSICAL CONSIDERATIONS 83 

As regards rainfall, the Nicaraguan depres- 
sion may be divided into two sections, the 
eastern, extending from the Atlantic coast to 
the divide between the Caribbean and the lake 
drainage, and the western, extending from this 
divide to the Pacific Ocean. In the eastern 
division the rainfall is heavy, particularly near 
the coast, where it approaches three hundred 
inches annually, and it is quite uniformly dis- 
tributed throughout the year. In the western 
division it is much less, and there is a well- 
defined dry season of five or six months, during 
which little or no precipitation occurs. The 
eastern slope, bathed in constantly recurring 
showers, is clothed with a dense virgin forest, 
which forms an elastic and absorbent cushion, 
breaking the impact of the drops and distribut- 
ing large volumes of water so slowly as to 
prevent sudden floods and consequent rapid 
erosion of the soil. The result is that the 
surface of the country, composed principally 
of tenacious red clay, remains comparatively 
unchanged from year to year. But in the west- 
ern division the conditions are very different : 
during the dry season the foliage is parched, 
extensive forest fires rage, and the surfaces of 
numerous clayey llanos shrink and crack in 
every direction. Consequently when the rains 
begin, the forest growth, largely denuded of its 
foliage, offers comparatively little protection to 



84 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the underlying soil, which falls a ready victim 
to the erosive action of the water, while the flat 
llanos, disintegrated as if by the action of frost, 
succumb in a measure to the same influence. 
As might be expected, this division is charac- 
terized by steep hills and rugged gullies, very 
different in appearance from the smooth slopes 
and shallow watercourses east of the divide. 

It is unnecessary at this point to discuss 
the different classes of material through which 
the canal must be excavated, as this subject 
will receive due consideration in a subsequent 
chapter. 



CHAPTER V 

CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 

/ I AHE project of an interoceanic canal is 
I but a natural development of the idea 
which imiDclled Columbus on his first 
adventurous voyage to the New World and led 
contemporaneous and subsequent explorers to 
trace the coast line of the two Americas from 
Labrador to Cape Horn. Failing in their at- 
tempts to find the apocryphal passage to the 
Indies, the project of excavating an artificial 
channel to repair the obvious neglect of Nature 
gradually took form within their minds. Philip 
II. sent a commission to the Isthmus to make 
surveys and decide upon the practicability of 
cutting a canal, but the report was so favorable 
and dwelt so strongly upon the advantages to 
international commerce of the proposed work 
that Philip, whose philanthropy did not extend 
to alien races, abandoned the project and even 
decreed death to him who should advocate it. 
For many years the struggle between England 
and Spain for supremacy in America kept the 
problem of trans-isthmian communication in 
the background, but in 1740 La Condamine, 



86 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

whom a long residence in Central and South 
America had afforded ample opportunities for 
observation, presented a paper before the 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, calling atten- 
tion to the importance of an interoceanic 
canal and advocating the construction of one 
through Nicaragua. Thirty-one years later 
the Viceroy of Mexico attempted to discover a 
suitable location across the Isthmus of Tehuan- 
tepec and from 1779 to 1781 Spanish engineers 
and explorers, unfamiliar with the use of locks, 
explored the Nicaraguan depression and, con- 
vinced of the impracticability of a sea-level 
cutting, reported unfavorably upon it. But 
Hodgson and Lee, the English agents on the 
Mosquito Coast, were favorably impressed by 
the San Juan valley and expressed themselves 
so strongly as to interest the British Govern- 
ment and to materially encourage the disastrous 
invasion of 1780, During the Napoleonic 
wars Alexander von Humboldt travelled 
through Central America, reporting favorably 
upon the Nicaraguan route, which he declared 
well adapted to the construction of a canal of 
large dimensions. In 1826 a struggle between 
English and American projectors resulted in 
the acquisition by the latter of a liberal con- 
cession, but the funds necessary to carry on 
the work could not be obtained and no con- 
struction was attempted. Soon afterwards a 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 8/ 

Dutch company was formed with the King of 
Holland at its head, and in 1830 a franchise 
was secured, but the opposition of the United 
States and the outbreak of the Belgian revo- 
lution effectually killed the project. 

Failing to secure outside assistance, the 
Central American states decided to construct 
a canal themselves and Mr. John Bailey, an 
English engineer, was engaged to make the 
necessary surveys. His project attracted con- 
siderable attention, both in England and the 
United States, and resulted in the formulation 
by prominent citizens of New York and Phila- 
delphia of a memorial to Congress asking that 
the Great Powers, as well as the Central 
American states, be invited to co-operate with 
the United States in opening communication 
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by 
means of a ship-canal. An agent of the 
Government was sent to Central America to 
report upon the project, but the unsettled 
political condition of the country prevented 
action and led the semi-independent states to 
negotiate futile individual contracts with irre- 
sponsible or indifferent projectors. 

Louis Philippe evinced great interest in the 
Isthmian Canal problem, but despite the efforts 
of Don Francisco de Castellon, Nicaragua's 
minister to France, his attention was directed 
chiefly to Panama, where the natural obstacles 



88 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

proved so great as effectually to discourage 
him. Louis Napoleon was a more promising 
advocate of the Nicaraguan project and, al- 
though his proposed company came to nothing, 
his pamphlet upon the subject, written after his 
escape from Ham in 1846, attracted much 
attention. 

In 1849 Northern capitalists formed the 
" Compania de Transito de Nicaragua," which 
was soon absorbed in the " American Atlantic 
and Pacific Ship-Canal Company " organized 
by Cornelius Vanderbilt and others. The Com- 
pany's agent negotiated an agreement with 
Nicaragua providing for the construction of a 
canal from ocean to ocean, granting land for 
purposes of colonization and conceding the 
monopoly of steam navigation upon the Repub- 
lic's inland waters. Colonel O. W. Childs of 
Philadelphia, an eminent engineer, was sent 
down to locate a ship-canal, and it is to him we 
owe our first accurate topographical knowledge 
of the Nicaraguan depression. There were at 
that time two proposed Nicaragua canal routes, 
Napoleon's, which was to pass through the Lake 
and emerge on the west in the Gulf of Fonseca, 
and Oersted's which left the lake near the 
mouth of the Sapoa river and terminated in the 
Bay of Salinas. Childs abandoned both these 
routes, however, and reported in favor of that 
through the Rio Las Lajas and Rio Grande 



CAJVAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 89 

valleys to Brito. But in 1858 the Transit Com- 
pany's concession was declared forfeited for 
non-compliance with the stipulated conditions 
and the rights of which the American company 
was deprived were bestowed upon Felix Belly, 
of Paris, who, unable to procure the requisite 
capital, in turn allowed the concession to lapse. 
Thereupon Nicaragua lost faith in French pro- 
moters and again turned to the United States, 
investing an American company with the privi- 
leges of the defunct " American Atlantic and 
Pacific Ship-Canal Company." 

Meanwhile the United States Government 
had developed an active interest in the canal 
problem and had inaugurated a series of surveys 
and investigations which has lasted, with occa- 
sional protracted intermissions, to the present 
day. Extensive explorations of various pro- 
posed routes led to the selection, by a process 
of elimination, of the Panama and Nicaragua 
locations as the only ones worthy of serious 
consideration, and of these the latter, with its 
inexhaustible lake to supply the summit level 
and its low pass through the continental divide, 
seemed to American projectors more practi- 
cable than the shorter Panama line, crossing 
and recrossing the torrential Chagres river, 
whose amenability to control was questioned. 
In 1872 an Interoceanic Canal Commission was 
appointed, consisting of General A, A. Hum- 



90 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

phreys, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., Captain 
C. P. Patterson, Superintendent of the Coast 
Survey, and Commodore Daniel Ammen, U. S. 
N., and shortly afterwards a naval expedition 
in charo^e of Commander Crossman was sent to 
Nicaragua. Several members of the party, in- 
cluding its chief, were drowned by the overturn- 
ing of a whale-boat in the surf at Grey town, 
and the command devolved upon Commander 
Hatfield, who crossed to the western shore of 
the Lake and began an examination of various 
passes through the continental divide. His un- 
completed work was continued in the autumn 
by Commander Lull, with Civil Engineer A. 
G. Menocal, U. S. N., as his assistant. Lull's 
location, as finally decided upon, was essentially 
that adopted by Colonel Childs, except that he 
traversed the valley of the Rio Del Medio in- 
stead of that of the Rio Las Lajas, believing 
the avoidance of the narrow upper Rio Grande 
valley worth the cost of the extra excavation in- 
volved. The reports of the various surveys, 
which had comprised all proposed locations on 
the Isthmus, were completed towards the end 
of 1875, and on February 7th, 1876, the Com- 
mission reported to the President recommend- 
ing the adoption of the Nicaragua route located 
by Lull and Menocal as possessing "both for 
the construction and maintenance of a canal, 
greater advantages, and offering fewer diificul- 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 9 1 

ties from engineering, commercial, and economic 
points of view, than any of the other routes 
shown to be practicable by surveys sufficiently 
in detail to enable a judgment to be formed of 
their relative merits." Unfortunately this favor- 
able report impressed Nicaragua with the idea 
that her consent was essential to the establish- 
ment of an interoceanic canal and caused her to 
insist upon the payment of an indemnity for 
the bombardment of Greytown before granting 
a concession to American projectors. As the 
United States still considered the bombard- 
ment justifiable, and as Greytown had been be- 
yond Nicaraguan jurisdiction at the time, the 
demand was refused and the negotiations came 
to nothing. 

In May, 1879, the International Scientific 
Congress, a creation of de Lesseps and those 
interested in his projects, met at Paris, osten- 
sibly to decide upon the best route for an inter- 
oceanic canal. In response to invitations from 
the Paris Geographical Society, under whose 
auspices the Congress was held, several Euro- 
pean and American governments sent dele- 
gates, while foreign geographical societies and 
learned bodies were well represented. But the 
de Lesseps faction preponderated, and it soon 
became evident that, despite the efforts of hon- 
est and unbiased sub-committees and individ- 
uals, only the Panama project would be allowed 



92 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

to receive serious consideration. Convinced 
that the result of the convention's session was 
predetermined and could not be influenced by 
any evidence adduced, many of the self-respect- 
ing members v/ithdrew, and the final vote which 
virtually committed France to the Panama 
route was cast chiefly by those whose judgment 
was entitled to little weight or whose motives 
were open to question. 

Upon their return from the Congress, Ad- 
miral Ammen and Mr. Menocal, the delegates 
sent by the United States Government, re- 
ported the character of the proceedings which 
they had witnessed and effectually destroyed 
the confidence of the American public in the 
Panama scheme. But faith in the Nicara^uan 
project remained unshaken and a Provisional 
Interoceanic Canal Society was organized to 
arrange the preliminaries of the proposed 
work. Mr, Menocal was sent to Nicarao-ua, 
and succeeded with some difficulty in procuring 
a concession, dependent, however, upon the 
formation of a regular canal company and the 
beginning of work within two years from 
May 2 2, 1880. With the co-operation of 
Generals Grant and McClellan the requisite 
company was readily organized, but an effort 
to secure necessary governmental aid was 
thwarted, largely by the combined efforts of 
the Panama Canal and Eads Ship Railway 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 93 

lobbies, which, while opposed to each other, 
were both actively hostile to the Nicaraguan 
enterprise. Assistance from the Government 
being despaired of, an association of capitalists 
was formed under the direction of the firm of 
Grant and Ward to undertake the construction 
of the canal, but the failure of the banking 
house resulted in the downfall of the project. 
Thus the concession, although extended two 
years, expired before anything definite was 
accomplished, leaving the Panama project for a 
time without a rival. But on the third of 
December, 1886, another Provisional Canal 
Association was formed, and again Mr. Menocal 
was sent to Nicaragua to obtain a concession. 
This time he was provided with $100,000 with 
which to make an advance payment and, as 
had been anticipated, he experienced no diffi- 
culty in obtaining satisfactory terms. The 
Nicaraguan Canal Construction Company was 
incorporated to conduct the necessary surveys 
and other work, with Mr. Menocal as Chief 
Engineer, and in 1889 the Provisional Canal 
Association became the Maritime Canal Com- 
pany of Nicaragua. Surveys were begun in 
December, 1887, when Civil Engineer R. E. 
Peary, U. S. N., reached Greytown with a 
corps of about forty-five skilled men and a 
hundred laborers, and in the autumn of 1889 
the improvement of Greytown harbor, the first 



94 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

step in the actual construction of the canal, was 
undertaken. The projectors, whose financial 
resources were incommensurate to the enor- 
mous task which they had set themselves, were 
naturally anxious to complete the work and 
every effort was made to enlist public interest. 
Early in the spring of 1890, Hon. Warner 
Miller, President of the Construction Com- 
pany, set out upon an inspection tour, accom- 
panied by a large party of engineers, journalists, 
officers detailed for the purpose by the United 
States Government, and others through whom 
it was thought the enterprise might receive 
helpful publicity or gain financial support. 
Reports by specialists were published and 
widely distributed, and the matter was brought 
before Congress, but although the practicability 
of the project was generally conceded, neither 
governmental aid nor adequate private funds 
were forthcoming, and on August 30, 1893, the 
Construction Company went into the hands of 
a receiver. 

It was subsequently reorganized and simul- 
taneous attempts were made to raise money 
abroad and to secure immediate government 
aid, but without success. However, in 1895 
Congress provided for an investigation of the 
engineering features of the project and a board 
was appointed by the President, consisting of 
Lieutenant-Colonel William Ludlow, Corps of 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 95 

Engineers, U. S. A., Civil Engineer M. T. 
Endicott, U. S. N., and Alfred Noble, C. E., of 
Illinois. Inadequate funds were supplied and 
as the date fixed by law for the submission of 
a report made a protracted study of the prob- 
lem impossible the Board was obliged to 
confine itself to an able criticism of the Com- 
pany's plans, pointing out what seemed to it 
undesirable features and dwelling strongly 
upon the' necessity of acquiring more infor- 
mation, particularly of a hydrological nature, 
before adopting a definite plan and proceeding 
with actual construction. This report, and 
the congressional hearings to which it led, 
resulted in the appropriation by Congress of 
$150,000 to conduct- the investigations recom- 
mended and the appointment by President 
McKinley, in July, 1897, of the Nicaragua 
Canal Commission, consisting of Rear-AdmiraL 
John G. Walker, U.S.N., Captain Oberlin 
M/CTafter, Corps of Engineers, U.S.A., and 
Lewis M. Haupt of Pennsylvania, Captain 
Carter was subsequently replaced by Colonel 
Peter C. Hains, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. 
Under the direction of this Commission elabo- 
rate surveys were made, systematic hydro- 
logical observations were conducted, a careful 
geological examination of all practicable loca- 
tions was completed and, for the first time in 
the history of the Nicaragua canal project, all 



96 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

data necessary for an authoritative report were 
obtained. The Commission affirmed the practi- 
cabihty of a ship-canal across Nicaragua, but 
recommended radical changes in the Canal 
Company's designs and materially increased 
its estimate of cost. This report was deemed 
satisfactory by partisans of the Canal in Con- 
gress, but an attempt to pass a bill providing 
for the prosecution of the work by the United 
States Government was bitterly opposed, and 
a compromise was reached under the terms of 
which the Isthmian canal Commission, charged 
with the investigation and comparison of all 
proposed interoceanic canal routes, was ap- 
pointed. This Commission consists of Rear- 
Admiral John G. Walker, U.S. N., Hon. Samuel 
Pasco, Alfred Noble, C. E., George S. Morison, 
Colonel Peter C. Hains, Corps of Engineers, 
U.S.A., William H. Burr, C. E., Lieutenant- 
Colonel Oswald H. Ernst, U. S A., Lewis M. 
Haupt, C. E., and Professor Emory R. Johnson. 
It is hardly conceivable that its researches can 
fail to fix forever the relative status of rival 
routes across the Isthmus. Meanwhile the 
Maritime Canal Company's concession having 
expired, that of the so-called Eyre-Cragin 
syndicate became effective, but has in turn 
been forfeited for non-compliance with the 
requirements. 

Having thus summarized the history of a 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 9/ 

great undertaking, let us briefly consider its 
engineering features. 

In all projects for an interoceanic canal 
through Nicaragua, the Lake, which is the 
chief source of water supply and defines the 
summit level, is the controlling feature. Upon 
its fluctuations depends the practicability not 
only of constructing and maintaining, but of 
navigating, the proposed waterway. Unless 
artificially augmented, an insufficient outflow 
through the Rio San Juan consequent upon a 
season of unusual dryness would reduce the 
depth of water in the canalized channel below 
the requirements of commerce and consequently 
evaporation, leakage, and loss due to lockage 
must be estimated and provided for. On the 
other hand, an unusual rainy season might 
produce floods which, unless skilfully con- 
trolled, would endanger the integrity of the 
works and render navigation difficult or impos- 
sible. It will thus be seen that in studying the 
canal problem an understanding of the fluctua- 
tions of the lake surface is quite as important 
as familiarity with the topography of the coun- 
try, and it was in this and other hydrological 
knowledge that former projectors were deficient. 

There have been five canal projects based 
upon actual surveys, the first being that of 
Colonel Childs, an engineer of high repute 
who, in 1850, 1 85 1, and 1852 carefully exam- 

7 



98 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

ined various locations in behalf of the then 
existing Transit Company, submitting a report 
which has formed the basis of all subsequent 
investigations, and which contains much val- 
uable information not to be found elsewhere. 
After studying several routes between the 
Lake and the Pacific Ocean, he fixed upon that 
through the Rio Las Lajas and Rio Grande 
valleys as possessing more advantages than 
any other, an opinion sustained by the recent 
investigations of the Canal Company's engin- 
eers and three government commissions. On 
the east side he proposed to canalize the San 
Juan river by means of seven dams, the upper 
one situated at Castillo and the lower half a 
mile below the mouth of the Rio Sarapiqui, 
where the canal was to leave the river and fol- 
lov/ its left bank to Greytown. On the Pa- 
cific side the summit level of io8 feet above 
the sea was carried westward 9^ miles from 
the Lake by a dam across the Rio Grande 
valley at Buen Retiro, thus giving an uninter- 
rupted navigable stretch of river, lake, and 
canal from Castillo on the east to Buen Retiro 
on the west, a distance of 1 18 miles. The pro- 
ject contemplated a depth of 17 feet and a 
bottom width of 50 feet, except at turnouts, 
where it was to be increased to 90 feet, and the 
locks, of which fourteen were to be used on 
each side of the summit level, were to be 250 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 99 

feet long, 60 feet wide, and 1 7 feet deep, with 
a maximum lift of 8 feet. The total inade- 
quacy of these dimensions to meet the de- 
mands of modern commerce should be borne 
in mind when Childs' estimate of ^31,538,319 
is compared with those submitted by subse- 
quent projectors for works of far greater 
magnitude, nor should it be forgotten that 
Greytown was at that time an excellent harbor, 
needing none of the costly improvements which 
have since become imperative. 

The second, or Lull, project was the result 
of a re-examination of the Childs route in 1872 
and 1873 by a United States Government ex- 
pedition. It contemplated a canal 26 feet in 
depth, and on the west side of the lake it 
adopted the valley of the Rio Del Medio in- 
stead of that of the Rio Las Lajas as a means 
of reaching the Rio Grande. The Medio 
divide is much higher than that of the Lajas, 
but a trifling shortening of the line and the 
avoidance of the narrow, crooked gorge of the 
torrential upper Rio Grande were thought to 
justify the increased expenditure attendant 
upon heavier excavation. Eleven locks, 400 
by 70 by 26 feet in size, with a maximum lift 
of 10.5 feet, were to furnish a means of ascent 
from the Pacific Ocean to the Lake, while the 
descent on the Caribbean side was to be ac- 
complished by ten locks of similar dimensions, 

LofC. 



100 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

but with a maximum lift of 10.87 ^^^t. The 
summit level, 107 feet above the sea, was to 
extend eastward to Castillo, where the first of 
four dams designed to canalize the river was 
located. At the last of these dams, a mile 
below the present mouth of the Rio San Carlos, 
the canal line left the river and followed its 
left bank to the San Juanillo, whence it took 
a direct course to Greytown. The lower San 
Carlos was to be diverted so as to flow into the 
San Juan below the fourth dam, thus avoiding 
possible trouble from its flood waters. Differ- 
ent bottom widths, varying from 50 to 72 feet, 
were adopted for different sections of the canal, 
and excavated river channels were to be 80 
feet wide. Greytown harbor, which had been 
destroyed by sand movement since the formu- 
lation of Colonel Childs' project, was to be 
restored at an estimated expense of ^2,500,000, 
and the probable cost of the entire work was 
placed at $65,722,147. 

The third project, that of 1885, was elab- 
orated by Mr. Menocal after a partial re-exami- 
nation of the Lull location. It contemplated 
a canal with a minimum depth of 28 feet, a 
bottom width of 80 feet and locks 650 feet 
long and 65 feet wide. Channels excavated in 
the river were to be 125 feet broad and those 
in the lake, 150 feet. On the west side the 
Childs route through the Lajas and Rio Grande 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT lOI 

valleys was adopted, the danger from floods in 
the narrow gorge of the latter stream being 
eliminated by diverting its upper course east- 
ward into Lake Nicaragua. On the east side 
the Rio San Juan was to be canalized by the 
construction at Ochoa, a point 69 miles from 
the Lake and 2,% "^i^^s below the mouth of 
the Rio San Carlos, of a huge dam rising to a 
height of 106 feet above the sea, or nearly 60 
feet above the normal surface of the river. It 
was thought that this dam would hold the 
water of the lake at a constant elevation of 
no feet above the sea, flooding the river valley 
and thus saving a vast amount of excavation. 
In order to carry the canal from the Ochoa 
dam directly towards Grey town at the same 
hieh level, extensive embankments were planned 
across the valleys of several small tributaries 
of the Rio San Juan, converting their lower 
reaches into lakes joined by short lengths of 
canal, and beyond these a cut with a maximum 
depth of 320 feet was to lead through the 
divide to the first of a series of three locks 
connectins: the summit level with the tide- 



water section terminating at Greytown. The 
entire cost was estimated at $64,036,197. It 
was a daring and attractive scheme, similar in 
most respects to that finally adopted by the 
Canal Company and known as the Canal Com- 
pany's high level line. 



I02 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

This project, the fourth of those under con- 
sideration, was a development by Mr. Menocal 
of that of 1S85. The bold and striking feat- 
ures which he had then introduced were 
retained, the Lake being held at an elevation 
of no feet above the sea by a dam at Ochoa 
rising to a height of 106 feet and the canal 
runnins: thence to the divide throusjh a series 
of basins formed by impounding streams tribu- 
tary to the lower San Juan. The three locks 
of high lift were also retained and the only 
radical change was on the west side of the 
Lake, where the canal totally in excavation 
was discarded and the Lake level carried to 
within four miles of the Pacific by a high dam 
closing the gap in the La Flor Hills through 
which the Rio Grande flows, forming of the 
Tola Basin an artificial lake 4.6 miles long 
communicating with Lake Nicaragua by a 
high level canal. 

This plan is open to many strong objec- 
tions. It necessitates the construction of two 
huge dams, neither of which can rest upon a 
secure foundation unless carried to an extreme 
depth, and one of which, that at Ochoa, must 
be built directly in the river San Juan, which 
cannot be diverted from its course. A long 
line of dams and embankments, the failure of 
one of which might be attended by serious 
consequences, must be constructed and care- 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 103 

fully maintained to form a series of communi- 
cating pools and carry the. high level eastward 
from the Ochoa dam ; and finally, the crests of 
dam and embankments must be raised four 
feet higher than was estimated and extensive 
regulating works must be installed, at an 
enormously increased cost, if the Lake level is 
to be maintained at no feet as proposed. The 
Canal Company's assumption that the surface 
of the Lake would remain four feet higher 
than the crest of the Ochoa dam is probably 
erroneous, the consensus of expert opinion 
being that near the end of the dry season the 
slope in the Rio San Juan would be almost 
inappreciable. Mr. Menocal proposed to dis- 
charge practically all the waste water of the 
Lake and upper San Juan valley through the 
river and over the crest of the dam and em- 
bankment weirs, but the investigations of the 
Nicaragua Canal Commission show that in- 
stead of 63,000 cubic feet per second, which 
Mr. Menocal assumed as the maximum dis- 
charge, an amount probably reaching 200,000 
cubic feet per second must at times be wasted. 
Even were this practicable without danger to 
the dam, it would induce a current in the 
adjacent canalized portion of the river which 
would not only make navigation difficult but 
might erode the banks and injuriously affect 
the artificial channel. This problem of dis- 



I04 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

posing of surplus water was studied by the 
Nicaragua Canal Commission, which recom- 
mended the construction of a supplemental 
waste-way to the Pacific, as will be explained 
in the discussion of their project. 

The feature of the Canal Company's plans 
which evoked more criticism than any other 
was the Ochoa dam, upon which the practica- 
bility of the entire undertaking was thought to 
depend. This structure was to be built where 
no suitable foundation could be obtained short 
of 17 feet below the sea level, or 123 feet below 
the crest of the dam as at first proposed, while 
the impossibility of diverting the river during 
construction led to the adoption of a rock-fill 
dam, formed by dumping rock into the water, 
and allowing it to arrange itself. It need 
hardly be said that such a structure 1900 feet 
long, and rising about 56 feet above the nor- 
mal river surface, would be a costly experi- 
ment, the success of which, in view of the fact 
that its crest was expected to serve as a weir 
for the discharge of large volumes of surplus 
water, is problematical. Its advocates claimed 
that numerous weirs built in India to raise the 
surface of streams, and divert water into irriga- 
tion channels, furnished precedents for such 
construction, inasmuch as they were founded 
upon sand, and were frequently built of dry 
rubble, but a little investigation shows the fal- 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT 105 

lacy of this argument. In the first place, Indian 
weirs are merely obstacles to the flow of streams, 
and their absolute integrity is a matter of little 
moment while the Ochoa dam could suffer 
no material damage without serious and far- 
reaching injury to the canal system, More- 
over, Indian dams are carefully built by hand 
during the dry season, and when, as is often 
the case, they are damaged or destroyed by 
floods, they are repaired or replaced during the 
ensuing dry season. Again, Indian weirs are 
comparatively low, and when a large volume of 
water is passing over them, are deeply sub- 
merged, while the crest and long down-stream 
slope of the Ochoa dam would necessarily be 
exposed to the full fury of the flood. 

The proposed La Flor dam presents no diffi- 
culties which cannot be readily overcome, but 
its magnitude, increased by the fact that sandy 
silt unsuitable for foundations extends to a 
depth of 45 feet below the sea-level, renders its 
construction inexpedient unless great advan- 
tages result. 

This project of the Maritime Canal Company 
is criticised at some length, in order that the 
reader may appreciate its chief defects, and 
understand why changes recommended by the 
Nicarao'ua and Isthmian Canal Commissions 

O 

are deemed necessary. Moreover, it is inter- 
esting as being the only one in accordance with 



I06 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

which actual construction has been attempted, 
decaying buildings, rotting dredgers, teredo- 
eaten breakwater, and four thousand feet of 
half-dredged canal at Greytown remaining to 
mark the beginning of a great undertaking. 

The project recommended by the Nicaragua 
Canal Commission was a modification of that 
of the Canal Company and contemplated a 
canal 30 feet in depth with a minimum bottom 
width of 1 50 feet, increased to 300 feet in river 
sections, and a minimum radius of curvature 
of 3,000 feet. The locks, of which there were 
to be six on the Caribbean slope and four on 
the Pacific side, were 80 feet wide and designed 
to receive a ship 620 feet in length. These 
dimensions were deemed amply sufificient for 
modern shipping and as all rock cuts were to 
be carried two feet below grade it was thought 
that the entire channel could be deepened by 
dredging, if necessary, without seriously inter- 
fering with traffic. The summit level was 
shortened by abandoning the proposed Ochoa 
dam and constructing one above the mouth of 
the Rio San Carlos, thus avoiding the sediment- 
laden flood waters of the latter stream, whose 
estimated maximum discharge is 100,000 cubic 
feet per second. Hard rock suitable for a 
foundation occurs 15 feet below the sea-level 
and a concrete dam with suitable regulating- 
works was projected. The canal left the river 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND. PRESENT 10/ 

just above the dam, locking down almost 
immediately to a lower level and following the 
left bank to the San Juanillo, whence it ran 
across country to Greytown, keeping to the 
east of Lake Silico and occasionally dropping 
18.41 feet when topographical conditions and 
suitable foundations made a lock advisable. 
Thus the heavy divide cut over three miles 
long and the system of embankments proposed 
by the Canal Company were avoided, as were 
also the flood waters of the San Carlos, which 
were to be discharged below the dam. 

It will be observed that the practical elimi- 
nation of the San Carlos drainage by chang- 
ino- the dam-site from Ochoa to Boca San 
Carlos would reduce the maximum discharge 
through the works to 100,000 cubic feet per 
second, an amount which, while less of a 
tax upon spillway capacity, was still thought 
sufficient to impede navigation somewhat and 
to injuriously affect artificial river channels. 
The Commission therefore deemed it advisable 
to drain part of the surplus lake water westward 
into the Pacific Ocean, thus preventing destruc- 
tive floods in the San Juan river and permitting 
the estabUshment of regulating works so near 
the lake that their operation would be almost 
immediately effective. No low pass in the 
divide being available for a separate channel, 
the cross section of the summit level cut from 



I08 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the lake westward was so increased as to allow 
of its use both as waste- way and canal. Suit- 
able controlling works were planned at Buen 
Retiro, 9.8 miles from the lake, where the 
summit level ended and the canal location and 
waste-way diverged, the former skirting the 
foot hills which bound the Tola Basin on the 
south and the lower Rio Grande valley on 
the southeast, the latter following the general 
course of the river, cutting off bends when 
necessary to avoid the vicinity of the canal 
line and debouching in the shadow of Brito 
Headland. The La Flor dam was abandoned, 
its advantages being thought incommensurate 
to its cost, and four locks, the first at Buen 
Retiro, the last about a mile from the beach at 
Brito, led the canal by easy stages from the 
I lo-foot summit level to that of the sea. 

The maximum discharge from the lake is 
estimated at 50,000 cubic feet per second and 
an ideal arrangement would permit of the 
diversion of this entire volume of water into 
an independent waste-way leading to the 
Pacific; but unfortunately, as we have seen, a 
separate channel is impracticable, and although 
the summit level of the canal might be en- 
larged so as to discharge the full amount with- 
out unduly eroding its banks or interfering 
with navigation, the character of the lower Rio 
Grande valley is such that the creation of a 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT I09 

torrential river within its confines would be a 
menace to the safety of the works. The soil is 
light and very susceptible to the action of run- 
ning water, while the depth to bed rock is so 
great as to prevent the interposition of a 
permanent and effective barrier between the 
stream and the canal. Under these circum- 
stances it was thought best to limit the dis- 
charge from the lake to the Pacific to about 
15,000 cubic feet per second, letting the over- 
plus flow down the Rio San Juan as of old. 

This project of the Nicaragua Commission 
was gradually segregated from various chrysa- 
lid schemes, the results of contemporaneous 
surveys, hydrologic observations, and geological 
examinations furnishing a constantly increasing 
mass of reliable data for consideration. Nu- 
merous variants were studied. The relocation 
of the Ochoa dam above the mouth of the Rio 
San Carlos and the construction of a canal 
thence to Greytown substantially as projected 
by Mr. Menocal was considered ; so, too, was 
the building of a dam and lock at Machuca, per- 
mitting a descent of from 24 to 30 feet, and a 
corresponding reduction in the height of the 
Ochoa dam, but involving a corresponding 
increase in the depth of the divide cut. It is 
impracticable in a single chapter to discuss the 
relative defects and merits of each of innu- 
merable projects investigated ; suffice it to say 



no OCEAN TO OCEAN 

that the plan finally recommended by the Nica- 
ras:ua Commission seemed to combine more 
advantages with fewer disadvantages than any 
other which had been suggested. 

The entire length of the route was 189.98 
miles, of which 139.3 ^^iles was summit level 
and 71.34 miles in the lake, while the total 
cost of construction, adhering to the dimen- 
sions already specified, was estimated by two 
members of the Commission at $118,113,790, 
and by the third member at $134,818,308. 
Of 152,781,270 cubic yards of material to be 
moved, 99,296,592 yards could be dredged, 
45,156,308 yards w^ere earth which must be 
handled otherwise, 7,573,992 yards were rock 
above water and 754,378 yards were rock 
under water. The earth varies from soft 
rock to fine silt : the rock between Lake 
Nicaragua and the Caribbean Sea is basalt, 
dacite, and sandstone, the latter in very small 
quantities : and the rock between Lake Nicar- 
agua and the Pacific is thinly stratified shale 
and sandstone. The basalt and dacite are 
hard to excavate, although less so than granite, 
but the shale and sandstone on the Pacific side 
are of such consistency that in most places 
they may be readily handled with steam 
shovels. 

The project of the Isthmian Canal Commis- 
sion is essentially that of the Nicaragua Com- 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT III 

mission, such changes as have been made 
being chiefly attributable to the constantly- 
increasing size of ocean-going ships and to the 
acquisition of more precise topographical and 
physical information concerning the country 
through which the canal must pass. Instead 
of a 30-foot canal, one 35 feet in depth is con- 
templated ; that is, one capable of navigation 
by the largest freight steamers now afloat or 
in course of construction. A few existing 
freighters are 600 feet long and draw 32 feet 
in salt water, or about 33 feet in fresh water, 
and the indications are that these dimensions 
will be somewhat exceeded in the future. If, 
then, the inter-oceanic canal is to afford safe 
passage to all classes of shipping, the proposed 
depth of 35 feet is none too great, but carrying 
the excavation 5 feet deeper than was contem- 
plated by the Nicaragua Commission greatly 
increases the estimate of cost. This is due 
partly to the greater amount of material to be 
removed — for the additional 5 feet in depth 
affects not only the bottom of the prism, but 
its side slopes as well — and partly to the fact 
that rock or other indurated material will be 
encountered in many places where the shal- 
lower excavation would have escaped it. 

Apart from this increased depth, the Isth- 
mian Canal Commission's project differs from 
that of the Nicaragua Commission chiefly in 



112 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the substitution of twin locks for single ones, 
in the relocation of the dam at the eastern end 
of the canalized river section, and in the aban- 
donment of the projected spillway from Lake 
Nicaragua to the Pacific Ocean. 

Twin locks are proposed in order to insure 
uninterrupted navigation, should one lock be 
closed for repairs. They are to have a clear 
length of 740 feet, but intermediate gates will 
be so arranged that shorter locks can be formed 
for small vessels, thus reducing to a minimum 
both the time and water consumed in locking. 
They are to be 84 feet wide. 

The dam forming the eastern end of the 
canaHzed river, located by the Nicaragua Canal 
Commission at Boca San Carlos, is relocated 
at Conchuda, two miles farther upstream, where 
the depth of bed rock below low water has 
been found to be 82 feet, or 38 feet less than 
at Boca San Carlos. As the foundations will 
probably have to be placed by the pneumatic 
process, this is a matter of much importance. 
The main part of the structure is to consist of 
caissons placed close together, with the joints 
between them sealed, supporting a monolithic 
concrete structure above low water. This por- 
tion of the dam, 731 feet in length, is to be 
flanked by two 100-foot sections built into the 
hillsides in open excavation, and core walls are 
to extend 100 and 240 feet farther, respectively, 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT II3 

on the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan sides. 
Thus the entire structure, founded on rock 
throughout, will have a total length of 1,271 
feet, and will support 2 1 sluice gates of 30 feet 
opening each, which, in conjunction with 32 
similar gates in a concrete dam half a mile 
on the Costa Rican side, will afford means of 
regulating the lake level within satisfactory 
limits. 

The waste-way to the Pacific is abandoned 
as involving much additional excavation with- 
out materially simplifying the problem of lake 
control. Since water from the surrounding 
drainage basin finds its way to the lake slowly, 
a marked rise in lake level consequent upon 
heavy and widespread rainfall may be foreseen 
two or three weeks before its occurrence. It 
will therefore be practicable to open the Con- 
chuda sluices in anticipation of coming floods, 
and to distribute the waste of water over a 
considerable period of time, avoiding objec- 
tionable currents and preserving the integrity 
of the banks. 

The Isthmian Canal Commission recom- 
mends eight locks, four on each side of the 
summit level, and departs slightly from the 
Nicaragua Commission's location in places, 
making the total length of canal and harbors 
183.66 miles. Of this distance, 70.5 miles are 
in the lake. The total cost is estimated at 

8 



114 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

^189,864,062, and it is thought that six years 
will be required after the inception of the 
work to entirely complete it. 

An argument against the Nicaragua Canal 
frequently advanced by advocates of rival 
projects is that the absence of natural harbors 
at the termini will necessitate the construction 
of costly breakwaters, and will entail, at least at 
Greytown, a considerable annual expenditure 
for dredging. This is true, but it is neverthe- 
less thought that the advantages of the Nica- 
raguan location are sufificiently great to justify 
the establishment and maintenance of the 
necessary harbor works. 

As has been said in a previous chapter, the 
harbor of Greytown, which fifty years ago was 
available for large sea-going ships, has been 
destroyed by the westward creep of sand 
brought from Costa Rica by the San Carlos 
and Sarapiqui tributaries of the Rio San Juan 
and carried by wave action along the coast in 
opposition to the littoral current. 

The Canal Company proposed to open and 
maintain an entrance through the bar thus 
formed by building a jett}^ perpendicular to the 
shore line and extending to the 6-fathom curve, 
some 3000 feet distant, and by dredging a 
channel to leeward of it. It was thought that 
the jetty would arrest the sand-drift until the 
re-entrant angle to the eastward, formed by pier 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT II5 

and shore line, was filled, when an extension of 
the structure would be necessary to avoid the 
formation of a bar across its end. Thus, 
periodic additions were to be made to the jetty 
until the new artificial shore line became per- 
pendicular to the direction of the sand drift, 
when it was thought that no more trouble 
would be experienced. This method of deal- 
ing with the problem has been deemed in- 
sufficient by certain subsequent investigators, 
although the construction by the Canal Com- 
pany of 937 feet of the proposed breakwater 
was attended with good results. 

The Nicaragua Canal Commission proposed 
to establish an entrance 7,500 feet east of that 
projected by the Canal Company by building 
two stone jetties, 600 feet apart, extending sea- 
ward in a northerly direction, or about normally 
to the present coast line, thus affording shelter 
from the prevailing northeasterly sea. The 
easterly jetty was to be about 2,670 feet in 
length, the westerly about 2,500 feet, and at 
their shoreward end a harbor approximately 
5,000 feet long and 1,000 feet wide was to be 
dredged. Of course the sand would gradually 
extend northward along the eastern jetty, but 
as deeper water was reached its encroachments 
would be less marked, and when it reached the 
end of the breakwater the structure could be 
extended or systematic dredging resorted to, 



Il6 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

to maintain the channel. The amount of sand 
to be controlled was estimated to vary from 
500,000 to 730,000 cubic yards annually. 

The Isthmian Canal Commission recom- 
mends the construction of a harbor analogous 
to that undertaken by the Maritime Canal 
Company but about one mile farther east. A 
jetty consisting of loose stones of irregular 
shape and size is to extend in a direction a 
little west of north to the 6-fathom curve. On 
the west side of this jetty a channel of moder- 
ate depth will scour out, and this channel is to 
be enlarged by dredging, a second parallel 
jetty being constructed to the westward, if 
necessary, to intercept such sand as comes 
from that direction. It is not expected that 
this entrance will maintain itself, and the 
necessary dredging will form one of the operat- 
ing expenses of the canal. The harbor is to 
have a length of 2500 feet and a width of 500 
feet, with a turning basin 800 feet wide at the 
inner end. 

There is no harbor at Brito and the range of 
possible locations for an artificial one is limited 
by the precipitous rocky headland known as 
Brito Head and by a rocky hill some 7,000 
feet to the southeastward. These two em- 
inences are the termini of the ranges of hills 
bounding the valley, which in its lower portion 
is a silted estuary extensively inundated at 



CANAL PROJECTS, PAST AND PRESENT II 7 

high tide and overgrown with a tangled man- 
grove forest. 

The beach, which extends from the south- 
eastern hill to the mouth of the Rio Grande, is 
of white sand quite different from the material 
brought down by the river, and this, with the 
fact that the shore line seems to have remained 
unchanged for many years, may be accepted as 
proof that a littoral current whose action is 
limited by the adjacent rocky headlands, oper- 
ates to prevent the further encroachment of 
sedimentary deposits and to maintain the beach 
and neighboring sea bottom as they exist at 
present. 

The prevailing winds are off-shore, the 
waves are of moderate height and no indi- 
cations of destructive storms from the sea are 
discernible. 

The Nicaragua Canal Commission proposed 
to build a jetty from a point on the beach about 
midway between its rocky termini, extending 
seaward in a south-southwesterly direction to 
the 7-fathom curve and sheltering a channel 
600 feet wide dredged along its western side to 
an inland harbor 135 acres in extent excavated 
in the low alluvial plain. Sheltered on the 
east by a stone breakwater and on the west by 
Brito Head, the entrance would be accessible 
in all weather. San Juan del Sur, directly 
open to the sea, is considered a good harbor 



lis OCEAN TO OCEAN 

and is regularly visited by ships of the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company. 

The harbor proposed by the Isthmian Canal 
Commission is essentially that recommended 
by the Nicaragua Commission. It is to be 
2,200 feet long and 800 feet wide, or 40.4 acres 
in extent, the breakwater is to extend to the 
6-fathom curve, and the entrance is to be 500 
feet wide. 



CHAPTER VI 

NARRATIVE — GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 

ON the twenty-first of December I was 
directed by the Chief Engineer to 
organize and equip my party and pro- 
ceed by the first available steamer to Rivas. 
The Commissary department was in great con- 
fusion, as the supplies had just arrived and 
nobody knew where anything was, but by a 
vigorous attack upon the storehouse and a 
liberal application of the principle that "pos- 
session is nine points of the law" I secured 
the essentials for our campaign, leaving the 
members of subsequent parties to indulge in 
derogatory remarks about my character and 
probable ultimate destination. Nine assistants 
had been assigned to me, and we worked all 
Christmas day, confining our celebration to the 
evening, when a bowl of punch was brewed, and 
drained by all hands to "sweethearts and 
wives." By Sunday night all our freight was 
loaded, and early Monday morning the boat 
went to La Fe, where we embarked in the midst 
of a furious rainstorm. We passed Grey town 
without stopping, and entering the narrow 



I20 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

channel which connects the lagoon with the 
river, made our way slowly into the main 
stream, which we ascended against a stiff cur- 
rent. The banks were low and marshy, lined 
with thickets of cane and tall grass or clumps 
of large-leafed palms, which at times almost 
brushed the railing of the boat, as we rounded 
a bend or hugged the shore to avoid the force 
of the current. At eleven o'clock we break- 
fasted on the covered deck abaft the main 
deck-house, the rain rattling upon the roof 
above us and whipping the broad expanse of 
river into a mass of spray. Lobster served 
with raw onions, canned corned beef, canned 
salmon, beans, plantains, yucca, boiled potatoes, 
hardtack, and fresh bread furnished a suf- 
ficiently varied meal, but we had parted too 
recently from the fleshpots of Egypt to accord 
it the attention which we afterwards learned it 
deserved. Not the least interesting of our sur- 
roundings was a squad of four soldiers, com- 
manded by an officer, whose duty it was to 
protect the boat from the attacks of revolu- 
tionists. Clad in overalls and straw hats, 
devoid of shoes, and armed with old Remington 
rifles, our guards did not present a military 
appearance, nor did Powell's discovery that 
one rifle, at least, was full of water, tend to 
increase our awe of them. 

As we proceeded, the banks became some- 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 121 



what higher, but until late in the afternodn we 
were in the delta country, low, swampy, and 
overgrown with a dense mass of tropical ve'gf.- 
tation. Occasionally a few banana trees half 
hid a little thatched cane hut on some high 
spot on the bank, and once or twice we saw 
dugouts drawn up upon the shore; but except 
for these signs of man's presence the wilder- 
ness seemed uninhabited save by monkeys and 
strange aquatic birds of varied hues. We 
stopped once to take wood from a thatched 
pile upon the bank and then breasted the 
stream again until nearly midnight, when we 
paused to land Ehle's party, which we had 
brought with us. They landed with their out- 
fit, cutting their way into the sombre, dripping 
jungle, and we gave them a cheer and left 
them. 

The country a few miles 'from the river is 
almost unknown territory, although there are 
probably few tributary streams which have not 
been ascended by venturesome rubber-hunters. 
These hardy pioneers, with a slender supply of 
food and camp equipage, penetrate the utmost 
depths of the wilderness in the pursuit of their 
arduous but profitable calling, and possess a 
topographical knowledge obtainable in no other 
way. Upon the arrival of a party at a uitable 
locality a camp is established, the buildings 
being framed of poles tied together with vines 



122 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

and thatched with palm leaves. Available rub- 
ber trees are then selected and slashed with 
machetes, each pair of cuts forming a V and 
the points being directly over one another. A 
spout is inserted at the bottom of the series 
to lead the milky sap into buckets placed to 
receive it. A large, vigorous tree will yield as 
much as twenty gallons of sap, each gallon of 
which makes about two pounds of rubber. 
The milk when collected is mixed with the juice 
of a certain vine possessing the peculiar prop- 
erty of coagulating it almost immediately ; the 
resulting mass is pressed or rolled together and 
dried for a fortnight, after which it assumes the 
color and elasticity of the rubber of commerce. 
It should be noted that Central American 
rubber is obtained from a species of wild fig 
{Casfilloa elastica), quite different from the 
rubber tree of South America. 

When we awoke the next morning the ap- 
pearance of the country had changed, and we 
were running through a hilly territory so 
heavily wooded that the mass of foliage upon 
the bank seemed solid. There were more 
signs of human occupancy, especially upon the 
Costa Rican side, and every few miles we 
passed little cane huts thatched with palm 
leaves and surrounded by banana trees. We 
had left the silted estuary of the San Juan, 
with its endless succession' of silico swamps 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS \ 1 23 



and lagoons, and had passed the site of\ the 
proposed Ochoa dam in the darkness. \ 

At about ten o'clock we reached the foot of 
the Machuca rapids, where we stopped at a 
little station to deliver some mail and to get 
up sufHcient steam to run the next mile. The 
rapids were not so bad as I expected, and we 
passed them without difficulty, although rather 
slowly. At three o'clock we reached Castillo, 
where the custom house is, and where we had 
been told that we should have no trouble, as 
arrangements had been made for passing all 
our possessions through without examination. 
As a matter of fact, however, no word had been 
received regarding us, and had it not been for 
an influential acquaintance whom we first met 
upon the boat, some of our effects would have 
been seized. We experienced a good deal of 
annoyance and delay, but finally got through 
and returned to the boat for the night. From 
the hurricane deck we had a good view of 
the interior of the custom house, and some 
of the proceedings which we witnessed amused 
us considerably. As all duties are determined 
by weight, it was manifestly proper that every- 
thing should be weighed, but the sight of three 
straw hats poised in solitary state upon large 
platform scales was a pleasing novelty. Dur- 
ing the evening I received a visit from the 
Commandante of the Port, who had evidently 



124 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

been dining " not wisely but too well " and was 
embarrassingly friendly. He finally departed 
after shaking hands a dozen times, and saying 
" Good-bye, my dear ! " in affectionate accents. 
I afterwards saw him enforcing discipline among 
his barefooted soldiers with a cocked revolver. 

The town is not uninteresting. There is an 
old Spanish fort, from which the place is named, 
upon a steep hill close to the river, and along 
the bank runs the single street of the town. 
All the houses drain into it, and the result is a 
slimy, offensive thoroughfare, encumbered with 
pigs, chickens, and naked children. The best 
houses are wretched structures of wood and 
adobe, while the others are built of cane, and 
can be seen through like lattice work. The 
population of the place, although small, seems 
much in excess of its lodging capacity, and 
the quantity of clothing distributed among the 
people strikes a stranger as insufificient. Men 
bathe in the river within a few feet of the 
street, and women do their washing clad only 
in skirts, whose wet, transparent folds accen- 
tuate rather than conceal their forms. 

In 1780, Castillo, then a Spanish military 
post, was assailed and captured by English 
troops under Colonel Poison, assisted by a 
naval contingent commanded by Captain (after- 
wards Lord) Nelson, in a gallant endeavor to 
accomplish a project devised by General Sir 






GREYTOWN TO RIVAS I^ ' 

John Bailing, Governor of Jamaica. This pro- 
ject, as has been explained in a previous chap- 
ter, was to take possession of the San Juan 
river, Lake Nicaragua, and the cities of Gran- 
ada and Leon, thus interrupting the communi- _ 
cation of the Spaniards between their northern 
and southern colonies, and at the same time „., 
obtaining control of the most practicable route 
for an interoceanic canal. Balling's plans were ^ 
well conceived, but his ignorance of local con-*^ 
ditions led to disastrous failure. Five hundred 
men detailed to accomplish this blow at Spain's .^i 
sovereignty were convoyed by Nelson from Port 
Royal to Cape Gracias a Dios, and thence — 
after being reinforced by part of the 79th Regi- 
ment—along the Mosquito Coast, stopping 
frequently to communicate with and propitiate 
the Indians, who were induced to furnish 
canoes and boatmen for the ascent of the 
river. It was not intended that Nelson should o -~ 
accompany the expedition beyond Greytown, ^ 
but he was not the man to turn back when so ^ 
much was to be accomplished, and with a force 1 
of seamen he joined the party as a volunteer. | 
' An advance guard of two hundred men, em- ^ 
barked in canoes and ship's boats, set forth 
against a foe entrenched in an unknown tropi- ,^ 
cal wilderness and aided by climatic and phys- \ 
ical conditions with which General Bailing ^ 
had neglected to reckon. It was the end of 



Ti26 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the dry season. The river, scantily fed from 
the fast subsiding lake, was shoal and full 
of bars, over which the intrepid adventurers 
were forced to drag their boats. The sun, 
shining with fierce brilliancy, was reflected 
from the glaring sand, and dense masses of 
foliage which lined the banks interrupted the 
cool trade-wind and made of the half dry river- 
bed a pitiless fiery furnace. As the party ad- 
vanced the water became deeper, but an adverse 
current and occasional rapids made progress 
slow and laborious. On the ninth of April 
they reached the island of Bartola, defended 
by a small work mounting nine or ten swivels 
and manned by a score of men. Nelson, at 
the head of a few seamen, took the place by 
storm, — " boarded " it, as he said, — ably sup- 
ported by Captain Despard of the Army. Pro- 
ceeding onward, the entire party disembarked 
some miles below Castillo, landed their sup- 
plies and ammunition, and advanced through 
an almost impenetrable forest to attack the 
fort. One of the men was bitten by a snake 
hanging from the limb of a tree, and almost 
before his companions had passed from sight 
he was dead, and putrefaction had set in. Nel- 
son himself barely escaped death from a veno- 
mous serpent, only to be seriously poisoned by 
drinking from a spring into which some boughs 
of the manchineel had been thrown. 



n 



:^&f^j 






V 




f^ 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 12? 

The expedition reached Castillo on the 
eleventh of the month, and Colonel Poison 
decided to besiege the fort, despite Nelson's 
urgent entreaties that it be immediately carried 
by assault. Valuable time was lost. The rains 
set in, sickness assailed the ranks of the in- 
vaders, and had the little garrison of two hun- 
dred and twenty-eight men been able to prolong 
its resistance the place need not have fallen. 
The surrender, made necessary by English 
occupation of a commanding eminence in the 
rear, occurred on the twenty-ninth of April, but 
it failed to afford the besiegers the relief which 
they had anticipated. The fortress was in a 
state to be appreciated only by those familiar 
with Central American disregard of sanitary 
precautions. Filth and putrefying hides fed 
the pestilence which exposure to the elements 
in an unaccustomed climate had engendered, 
and within a short time the task of burying the 
dead was more than the living could accom- 
plish. After months of persistent effort the 
ill-fated expedition was abandoned, and the 
few survivors withdrew. Of eighteen hundred 
men sent to different posts along the river only 
three hundred returned. The naval contingent 
consisted of two hundred seamen. Eighty- 
seven of these were stricken with illness in 
a single night, and of the whole detachment 
only ten survived. Nelson, suffering with dys- 



J 128 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

entery, and ordered to command the " Janus," 
returned to Greytown the day before Castillo 
surrendered, thus escaping the fate to which 
so many of his countrymen were doomed. 

We had thought the " Hollenbeck," the 
river steamer which had brought us from 
Greytown, rather deficient in passenger accom- 
modations, but she was a floating palace com- 
pared to the " Vero," the craft into which we 
were transferred the next day. This triumph of 
naval architecture, which plies upon the Rio San 
Juan above the Castillo rapids, is a small stern- 
wheel steamer of the western river type. The 
boilers are forward, where wood is piled upon 
the deck, and the engines are aft, leaving rather 
more than half the deck for freight. On the 
hurricane deck, which is exceeding light and 
has no railing, is a pilot house and a small deck 
house containing a galley and the captain's 
state-room. First class passengers are allowed 
the freedom of this deck and may move about 
to some extent without stepping into the river 
a dozen feet below ; but they are exposed to 
the elements, their only shelter consisting of 
an insufficient tarpaulin propped over the 
dining table. We had for fellow passengers 
a Nicaraofuan general, — of whom there are said 
to be six hundred, — two aids, a pretty girl with 
whom the General had scraped an acquaintance, 
and her old crone of a mother, who smoked 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 1 29 

black cigars and discreetly looked the other 
way. On the deck below was a detachment 
of drunken soldiers, copper colored, barefooted 
rogues, clad in all sorts of costumes and armed 
with old Remington rifles. It rained much of 
the afternoon, and during the remainder of the 
time the sun shone with a fierce brilliancy 
which was very trying, but the trip was beauti- 
ful and interesting nevertheless. The jungle, 
though dense, was not so impenetrable as it 
had been further down stream, and the 
silence of the primeval forest was broken by 
the chattering of monkeys and the harsh, dis- 
cordant cries of macaws and parrots, whose 
brilliant plumage flashed like sunlight from 
the sombre depths of the woods. While the 
light lasted we watched the shifting scene, and 
when darkness fell we sat about and sang some 
old familiar songs. 

Shortly after nine o'clock we saw the lights 
of Fort San Carlos, and immediately after- 
wards came a cry of " Man overboard ! " followed 
by a rush toward the stern. The engines 
stopped and the boat swung broadside to the 
current, while a dugout, cunningly shaped from 
a giant cedar log, was launched. Guided by 
two excited natives she disappeared in the 
encircling darkness, only to reappear after a 
few moments with a limp and dripping soldier 
lying in the bottom. He had rolled overboard 

9 



ISO OCEAN TO OCEAN 

in his sleep and, suddenly aroused by his in- 
voluntary bath, had struck out bravely for 
shore ; but his strength failed him, and he was 
upon the point of sinking when his rescuers 
seized him. As the river swarms with giant 
sharks, his escape seemed little short of 
miraculous. 

While he was receiving the noisy congratu- 
lations of his friends the " Vero " resumed her 
course, and a few minutes afterwards we ran 
alongside the " Victoria," lying at the wharf 
below the town, and began transferring our 
effects to her. She is a fine iron boat, built 
in the States and plying on Lake Nicaragua. 
As the country was on the verge of insurrec- 
tion, she was overrun with soldiers, who were 
quartered aboard, and were frequently offensive 
to passengers and crew alike. Some time 
before, they had killed the mate and impris- 
oned the captain for three months ; and at that 
time the latter was closely watched and enjoyed 
only nominal liberty. The explanation is that 
the control of the boat meant the control of the 
lake, and therefore of the entire country; for 
the only other steamer, " El '93," is much in- 
ferior to the " Victoria " both in size and power. 

We were awakened early Thursday rriorn- 
ing by the sound of voices and the crowing of 
gamecocks, a number of which, the property 
of soldiers, were picketed about the deck. 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 131 

After coffee and rolls we went ashore, wander- 
ing for a time through the quaint, dirty streets, 
and inspecting the two forts which are supposed 
to command the place. One, back from thelake, 
was only an old earthwork, in a poor state of 
preservation and with no provision for housing 
men. The only gun was a broken cast-iron 
piece, lying half buried in the ground, but the 
place was garrisoned with the usual barefooted 
soldiery. The second fort, which dominates 
the entrance to the lake, was provided with 
dilapidated barracks, and had one good Krupp 
gun, besides several out-of-date brass pieces. 
From the ramparts we gazed out over the 
water and along the marshy shore, which, 
sheltered from the trade-winds and fed by 
sediment from the Rio Frio, presents the 
strange spectacle of a delta plain growing from 
the outlet of a lake toward its head. In the 
foreground women, clad in garments both 
diaphanous and scanty, bathed, sublimely in- 
different to the proximity of men totally un- 
encumbered; and, breaking the placid surface 
of the water, the rusty boiler of a wrecked 
"Transit" steamer lay, a monument to past 
activity and enterprise. 

Through the kindness of one of the officers 
we secured some shark hooks. These we used 
so successfully upon our return to the " Vic- 
toria" that we landed one monster after an 



132 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

exciting struggle. He was promptly attacked 
by the natives, who cut off his tail with their 
machetes and rolled him back into the water, 
where, incapable of managing himself, he was 
speedily torn to pieces by his savage brethren. 
The river was alive with fish, particularly tar- 
pon, five or six feet long, which we at first 
mistook for sharks. These fish, the savalo-real 
of the natives, are always very abundant, and 
a properly equipped angler might be sure of 
good sport anywhere between the outlet of the 
lake and Castillo. 

Early Friday afternoon Lieutenant Hanus's 
and Mr. Brown's parties arrived upon the 
" Vero," and shortly afterwards we sailed upon 
the " Victoria " for San Jorge, the port of 
Rivas. It was a fine afternoon, and as we 
drew away from the land the scene was beauti- 
ful. The receding shore covered with green, 
the little town straggling up the hillside, and 
the soft, blue hills beyond were mirrored in 
the quiet waters of the lake, while ahead upon 
our port bow the cloud-topped peaks of Ome- 
tepe and Madera frowned upon us. These 
mountains are inactive volcanoes, rising to an 
altitude of about five thousand feet, and their 
summits are almost constantly hidden in clouds. 
As the afternoon wore on, we passed groups 
of low, fertile islands, densely overgrown with 
bushes and trees, and of all sizes, from small 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 133 

spots of green to tracts many acres in extent. 
In the evening the wind sprang up and ruffled 
the surface of the lake, which shone Hke silver 
in the moonlight, and we sat about in scanty- 
costume, and spun yarns until it was time to 
unroll our bedding and hunt the coolest places 
for our cots. 

The next morning we were up at dawn, and 
found ourselves headed toward shore with the 
two great volcanic peaks looming up alongside. 
By the time we had had our bread and coffee, 
we were moored to the San Jorge pier, and in 
half an hour we had landed all our freight. 

I met Mr. F. H. Davis, manager of the tram- 
way, upon the pier, and went with him to Rivas ; 
there I arranged to quarter my party at the 
house of Mrs. Runnels, while we were breaking 
out our outfit and getting ready for the field. 
The building was a one-storied whitewashed 
structure, with high bare rooms opening upon 
courtyards bright with flowers, and communi- 
cating with the street only by large wooden 
doors with small iron gratings. The roof was 
covered with the semi-cylindrical red tiles so 
common in that country, and around the court- 
yards were broad, brick-paved verandas, upon 
which the wide inner doors of the house 
opened. 

By twelve o'clock the rest of the party had 
arrived, and we breakfasted in the court, or 



134 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

paHo, amid sunshine and flowers. Beef in vari- 
ous forms, eggs, chicken, rice, plantains, yr^/'^?/^^, 
tortillas, wheat bread, alligator pears, and nis- 
peros followed in rapid succession, until, by the 
time we had disposed of our black coffee (nec- 
tar for the gods !) and blacker native cigars, 
we were in a state of blissful contentment ; but 
from this we were rudely awakened by a sud- 
den recollection of the necessity of getting our 
freight from San Jorge to Rivas. It was a 
fiesta, or holiday, and the natives, never prone 
to labor when a valid excuse for idleness exists, 
professed great surprise that we should expect 
them to imperil their immortal souls by work- 
ing upon a holy day. But money will accom- 
plish wonders ; finally a man was found who, 
for an exorbitant sum, agreed to assist us. 
Unfortunately his oxen were conscientiously 
opposed to desecrating the day, and for a long 
time refused to be caught; but as we were upon 
the point of giving up in despair, they were 
corralled, and by dark our belongings were 
safely stowed beneath Mrs. Runnels's hospitable 
roof. In the evening Mr. Davis took us en 
masse to call upon Dr. Cole, an American 
gentleman who has lived many years in Rivas, 
and we afterwards wandered about the moonlit 
streets until doors were closed, lights extin- 
guished, and the town was plunged in sleep. 
The next day was Sunday, and we devoted 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 135 

the morning to sight-seeing. Rivas is a town 
of about eight thousand inhabitants, situated 
three miles from the lake and a hundred feet 
above it The streets are partially macad- 
amized, the sidewalks high and narrow, and 
the houses one-storied adobe structures, built 
around patios, and usually without windows. 
Zopilotes, or buzzards, perch in sombre rows 
upon the red-tiled roofs, secure m the protec- 
tion of a law which recognizes their utility as 
scavengers and permits them to perform their 
revolting functions unmolested. A plaza ot 
some extent is overlooked by dingy barracks 
and a large parochial church with a clock, it 
is said that this clock, originally a fine one, was 
once cleaned by a local genius, who, when re- 
placing the parts, omitted three wheels which 
seemed to him unnecessary. I cannot vouch 
for the truth of this story, but the erratic actions 
of the clock when I knew it seemed to indicate 
some internal disorder. 

The country immediately about the town is 
of surpassing beauty. The roads are bordered 
by hedges of large mango trees inclosing gar- 
dens, broad pastures {potreros) and coffee and 
cacao plantations. Tall cocoanut palms nod 
against the clear blue sky, and from the neigh- 
boring hills are views across green fields and 
fertile valleys, with the sparkling lake and cloud- 
capped Ometepe in the distance. 



136 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Rivas is connected with San Jorge and the 
lake by a tramway, over which a wheezy Uttle 
locomotive draws two broken-backed street cars 
on steamer days, or when the amount of traffic 
demands it. On other occasions one of the cars 
is, or was, operated by means of a pair of mules, 
a Jamaica negro, a thick stick, and much 
profanity. 

I must admit that the people interested me 
more than the town, and Sunday was a good day 
upon which to observe them. Women were 
vastly in the majority, perhaps because the gov- 
ernment was recruiting in anticipation of a 
revolution, and did not always stop to consult 
the inclinations of promising subjects. Be that 
as it may, we saw very few men, and most of 
them wore the red hatband which marked the 
soldier. But there were women galore — bare- 
footed, black-eyed, brown-armed, olive-cheeked 
women with bright rebozos thrown across their 
shoulders, and an occasional well-dressed woman 
of the higher class, whose black lace mantilla 
made her white face look pallid beside the faces 
of her less aristocratic sisters. 

In the afternoon I rode along the lake shore 
to the mouth of the Rio Las Lajas, where the 
canal line begins. Mr. Davis, who was one of 
my companions, knew the country very well, 
and proved an excellent guide. He took us 
down through green lanes bordered with giant 



^' 




A Native Belle. 



GREYTOWN TO RIVAS 1 37 

cactus hedofes and between little red-tiled cot- 
tasfes to the beach, where the waves were break- 
ing into spray, and cloud-capped Ometepe 
loomed above us. With a stiff breeze at our 
backs we rode southward, our horses sometimes 
splashing through the water and sometimes 
threading their way through tortuous, log-en- 
cumbered, shady paths, which parallel the 
shore. At the mouth of the Lajas we dis- 
mounted to look about a little, and then struck 
inland, stopping a few minutes at a little cane 
cottage where pigs, chickens, and naked chil- 
dren struggled for possession of the earthen 
floor. Circuitous bridle paths, deeply worn be- 
tween high banks, led us through a beautiful 
expanse of wooded country with little to sug- 
gest the tropics, save occasional clumps of 
cactus eight or ten feet high, or straggling 
representatives of the palm family. We 
reached Rivas just in time for dinner, and 
found the rest of the men returning from a 
cockfight, with which they had been beguiling 
the tedium of a Sunday afternoon. 

I had engaged an old native, named Nicanor 
Ortega, as capataz of laborers, and instructed 
him to employ twenty men. In the evening he 
reported that this had been done and that all 
was in readiness for a start upon the morrow. 



CHAPTER VII 

NARRATIVE— SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 



E 



]AARLY Monday morning two creaking 
carretas drew up at the door and were 
loaded with camp equipage, which I 
put in charge of the transitman and sent to 
the site I had selected for our camp. Several 
Americans and the entire force of laborers 
accompanied the caravan, which jogged slowly 
away in a cloud of dust, the squeak of wheels 
remaining audible long after the cries of the 
drivers were lost in the distance. These carre- 
tas are clumsy two- wheeled carts of native 
manufacture, drawn by oxen, or, more fre- 
quently, by bulls. The wheels are solid 
blocks of wood, frequently sections of tree 
trunks, and the superstructure is a clumsy 
Tack with a long and heavy tongue. The typi- 
cal example contains no iron, but of late years 
it has been customary to protect the wheels 
with tires consisting of broad straps of iron 
bent to fit successive segments of the wheels 
and nailed on. Grease is used sparingly, and 
the squeak of wheels can frequently be heard 
at a marvellous distance. Several pairs of 



SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 139 

oxen are commonly used ; they are yoked to 
the conveyance by means of heavy timbers 
lashed in front of their horns with raw-hide 

thongs. 

Early in the afternoon we loaded a third 
carreta with instruments and personal luggage, 
and started for camp. It was a hot but pleas- 
ant day. For the first part of the way we 
jolted along through shady lanes lined with 
cactus hedges, past red-tiled casas through 
whose flimsy walls one could see pigs and 
people living in amicable intimacy; but after 
a little we turned into less frequented paths, 
breaking our way through the rank tropical 
undergrowth or grinding heavily along in the 
ruts of some disused trail. With the bright 
sunlight sifting through the foliage overhead 
and \ breeze blowing steadily from the lake, 
our trip was far from unpleasant. Arrived at 
San Pablo, some six or seven miles from 
Rivas, we found two tarpaulins, stretched tent 
fashion over frames of poles ; before dark, can- 
vas cots were slung and we were comfortably 
settled in our new quarters. 

We were camped upon a gentle rise near 
the bank of the Rio Las Lajas, a little stream 
a hundred feet or more in width, which at 
that season was merely a deep lagoon winding 
between densely wooded banks, whose giant 
trees nearly met overhead. Iguanas rustled 



I40 OCEAX TO OCEAN 

through the foliage, monkeys swung from 
limb to limb, and occasionally a great turtle, 
his back just breaking the black surface of the 
water, floated lazily by in a path of sunhght. 
Above us on the hillside was the little house 
from which the place takes its name — a rude 
affair with no walls worth mentioning, and a 
red tiled roof. Just across the river was an 
abandoned banana plantation, and near us was 
a field of sugar-cane ; but except for these the 
land seemed uncultivated. Behind the tents 
was a cactus hedge six or seven feet high, and 
a few laree trees afforded welcome shade. 
From the bank of the stream jutted a ledge 
of rock whence one could plunge into deep, 
cool water, although occasional glimpses of 
sharks and allis^ators made us a little cautious 
about indulging in that refreshing pastime. 

It soon developed that our camp ground 
had been unfortunately chosen, since the in- 
closure which contained our tents had recently 
served as a cattle yard, and was infested with 
ticks, fleas, and red-bugs. The ticks were 
perhaps the most troublesome. Countless in 
number and of microscopic proportions, they 
throve on kerosene, revelled in camphorated 
alcohol, and assimilated tobacco juice with sur- 
prising readiness. Only by dabbing the body 
with a lump of soft wax could they be re- 
moved, and every head which parted company 



SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 141 

with its body and remained beneath the skin 
produced a festering sore. Hardly better were 
the red-bugs, while the fleas did their full share 
toward making hfe insupportable. 

Our survey took us through a tangle of 
vegetation, which necessitated constant cut- 
ting, and made progress slow and laborious. 
It was sometimes impossible to work in the 
afternoon, when everything was dry, because 
of ''pica-pica,'' a vine bearing a brown pod 
which sheds a fine down almost unendur- 
able. It attacked face and hands, and even 
penetrated our clothing, burning like fire and 
producing an almost uncontrollable desire to 
scratch, than which nothing could be more 
injurious. Then, too, the wasps, of which 
there were millions, delayed the work se- 
riously, as many nests had to be destroyed 
each day; and ants, infinite in variety and 
number, aided and abetted the wasps to the 
best of their ability. We were not troubled 
by snakes, although we saw a good many and 
killed one large rattler, but I must confess to 
having been a little starded one day when a big 
one dropped into the canoe at my feet. They 
have a way of climbing trees there, which is 
rather disconcerting to strangers. But our life 
was upon the whole a happy and healthful one, 
with days in the tangled jungle and nights 
under flapping canvas ; days of sweat and toil. 



142 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

and peaceful nights when the glorious southern 
moon looked down upon us, and the lake winds, 
freighted with odors of the forest and the fresh- 
ness of the sea, whispered in our ears. 

While at San Pablo I became conversant 
with the qualities of native saddles, articles of 
equipment which I cannot conscientiously 
recommend as possessing any good points 
whatsoever. Formed of wooden blocks, al- 
most semi-cylindrical in section, and as broad 
in front as behind, covered with raw-hide and 
provided with diminutive stirrups designed 
to accommodate the great-toes of barefooted 
riders, it is difficult to conceive of anything 
more uncomfortable or less calculated to 
assist an inexperienced rider in retaining his 
seat. I distinctly remember my first ride along 
the picket line on one of these devices of the 
Evil One. While I was crossing a deep gully 
the raw-hide girth slipped, and in spite of my 
efforts my horse bounded up the farther bank, 
saddle and rider sliding gracefully off over his 
rump. I fell upon a pile of brush ironically 
called coiisuelo, covered with long, sharp 
thorns and inhabited by small red ants, and 
before I could extricate myself I was stung 
in a thousand places. I walked back to camp 
carrying the saddle, and my subsequent re- 
marks to the man who had ofHciated as 
hostler were unfit for publication. 



SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 143 

An important member of our party was Al- 
fredo Castillo, a boy thirteen or fourteen years 
of age, who joined us of his own volition and 
refused to leave. As we were moving from 
Rivas he accosted us and inquired whether we 
wished to hire a boy. Upon receiving a reply 
in the negative he calmly relieved Mr. Powell 
of his rifle and trudged along with us, no amount 
of persuasion sufificing to relieve us of his pres- 
ence. At supper time he appeared in the mess 
tent, waited upon table, washed the dishes after- 
wards, prepared our beds, and vanished, only to 
reappear in the morning, energetic, capable, and 
absolutely impervious to sarcasm. In the course 
of two or three days he had become indispen- 
sable to us, and we put his name upon the pay- 
roll, much to his satisfaction. He was a bright 
little fellow, whose mournful black eyes greatly 
belied his disposition, and few were the days 
when no amusement was afforded by his mis- 
chievous pranks and droll sayings. His en- 
counter with a pig, who, wandering around in 
the darkness, nearly ran over the sleeping boy ; 
his ignominious retreat, au natureL to the 
friendly shelter of our tent ; his mighty threats 
of vengeance, changing to shrill squeaks of 
alarm upon the unexpected reappearance of 
the offending quadruped ; and his subsequent 
elaborate explanation, formed one of the most 
amusing incidents of our camp life. 



144 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

About the middle of the month we received 
visits from the chief engineer and the disburs- 
ing officer, and it became necessary for me 
to go frequently to town upon business con- 
nected with the party. The road used by horse- 
men between San Pablo and Rivas passes 
through a comparatively poor part of the 
country, almost uninhabited and densely tim- 
bered. The trail, for it is little else, is difficult 
to follow, because the frequent detours made 
by horsemen and carretas in the rainy season, 
to avoid bad places, have resulted in the for- 
mation of a multitude of paths so interlaced 
as to constitute a veritable labyrinth. During 
the month which we passed at San Pablo 
I never succeeded in following the same path 
twice, and upon one occasion I w^ent so far 
astray that I barely reached camp before dark. 
The country traversed was particularly pretty 
at that season, several varieties of flowering 
trees being in full bloom and forming pyra- 
mids of brilliant pink and yellow, which con- 
trasted finely with the all-encircling background 
of green. Tangled thickets and forest glades 
alternated with sun-backed llanos besprinkled 
with calabash trees {Crescentia alata\ from the 
fruit of which native women carve drinking 
cups of quaint design. 

In Rivas the military authorities were busy 
recruiting, and we frequently saw squads of sol- 



SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 145 

diers returning from successful man-hunts with 
the unwilling victims tied together in their 
midst. Laborers from our party were sometimes 
seized, but a vigorous protest to the comman- 
dante always procured their release. 

On the nineteenth of the month the com- 
missioners, who had been to Managua to pay 
their respects to the President of the Republic, 
reached Rivas, accompanied by Mr. Menocal 
and a party of American engineers and con- 
tractors who were travelling through the canal 
belt. They came out to camp several times, 
and I took the commissioners over the line, 
while Mr. Menocal, chief engineer of the Canal 
Company, devoted himself principally to the 
contractors. The lower valley of the Rio Las 
Lajas is gently rolling, partially wooded country. 
It was easily inspected from a canoe on the 
river and in the course of a ride along a lane 
which we had cut ; but in the valley of Guiscoyal 
Creek, about two miles from the lake, the 
growth of scrub was so dense that it was prac- 
tically impossible to leave the picket line, which 
crossed and recrossed the little stream repeat- 
edly. All went well for a time, and we rode 
along contentedly in single file, but at last a 
crossing was reached where steep cut banks and 
muddy creek bed brought us to an abrupt halt. 
We might have continued on foot, and re- 
turned for our horses instead of pressing on to 



146 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

RIvas as had been planned ; or we might have 
abandoned our inspection for the day, and 
attacked the Hne subsequently from the other 
end ; but neither of these alternatives satisfied 
the commissioners, who courageously insisted 
upon turning into the jungle and attempting to 
force a passage around the bend of the creek 
which barred our progress. The result was as 
I had anticipated. Within half an hour we 
were hopelessly entangled in the brush, and 
could neither advance nor retreat, torn clothes 
and inflamed countenances bearing witness that 
thorns and ''pica-pica " had done their best to 
guard the forest fastnesses. I finally dismounted 
and fought my way with hands and machete to 
the main picket line, upon which I emerged 
scratched, bleeding, and exhausted, after half an 
hour's hard work. Fortunately the transit party 
was near, and I soon organized a relief expedi- 
tion of four fnacheteros who cut a way for us to 
the Rivas road, not far distant. I have always 
considered that trip a piece of good fortune, 
since it strongly impressed the participants with 
a sense of the difficulties under which we labored, 
and satisfactorily explained the long duration 
of our work. 

On the fifth of February, our survey having 
reached a point nearly four miles from the lake, 
we moved to a place called Espinal, on the 
summit of the continental divide. The car- 



SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 147 

retas which had been engaged arrived at day- 
break, and after a hurried breakfast we struck 
camp, loaded tents and equipment, and started 
off. Thirty-odd men, and several women who 
had come to pounce, vulture-Hke, upon any- 
thing left behind, followed like a small army 
behind the creaking ox-carts. We wound along 
through shady lanes, and finally emerged upon 
a great llano, or plain, baked in the sun until it 
had cracked in every direction, and dotted with 
calabash trees. Following this plain across 
the road from Rivas to San Juan del Sur, we 
plunged again into woods, and finally stopped in 
a small clearing containing a little hacienda and 
a well. Tents were soon erected, cots slung, 
and a reel of barbed wire to which we had 
unexpectedly fallen heirs was strung around the 
camp to keep cattle at a respectful distance. 
Although we were upon the summit of the di- 
vide, the ground was exceedingly flat. Dur- 
ing the rainy season this ground becomes so 
saturated with water as to be almost impassable. 
The long expected " revolution " materialized 
early in the month. Hostilities began at San 
Juan del Sur, twelve or fourteen miles from 
camp, on Sunday the sixth of February, and 
during the following night we could hear the 
sound of bugles from the "telegraph road" 
along which troops were being pushed to the 
front, Monday there was heavy cannonading 



148 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

in the direction of San Juan, and conflict- 
ing reports were rife: some maintained that 
the insurgents had won the town, others that 
they were in full retreat. The next morn- 
ing, returning from my usual ride along the 
picket line, I encountered a squad of horsemen 
riding through a woodland trail toward Rivas. 
They wore hatbands and ribbons of green, 
the color of the revolutionists, and upon per- 
ceiving me they covered me with revolvers, 
requesting me to stop. I like to be obliging, 
particularly when looking down the muzzles of 
a dozen cocked revolvers ; so I stopped, ex- 
plained who I was and what I was doing, and 
ended by expressing a wish that, if there was 
to be a fight, I might be permitted to witness 
it. This suggestion met with cordial approval, 
and we rode on amicably for a mile or two, 
when we met the main force of insurgents, 
some four or five hundred strong. I was pre- 
sented to the general in command, who, after 
questioning me as to the number and disposi- 
tion of the Government troops in Rivas, and 
the whereabouts of the " Victoria," and finding 
that I could or would give him very little in- 
formation, invited me to ride with himself and 
staff and see them take the town. I readily 
assented, and was soon on friendly terms with 
several young aids educated in the States and 
speaking excellent English, one of whom laugh- 



SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 149 

ingly urged me to accept his rifle and emulate 
my illustrious namesake the filibuster; but I 
explained that, owing to my official position, I 
must remain a mere spectator, and that the 
navy revolver which I carried was sufficient 
for purposes of self-defence. 

We swept on like a triumphal procession, 
occasionally stopping at some little house for 
a drink of water or to drag from his hiding- 
place an unwilling recruit, until about noon, 
when in a shallow cut in the road near Rivas 
the enemy's picket fired upon us and a sharp 
engagement ensued. It was of brief duration, 
the picket falling back upon the town, closely 
followed by our men. Part of our force kept 
to the road, while the rest of us turned through 
a gap in a barbed-wire fence and charged up a 
steep hill in the southern part of the cemetery, 
which the Government had fortified. Finding 
that the garrison had fled, and that only a weak 
and ineffective fire was opened upon us from 
the neighborhood of the great stuccoed gate as 
we reached the crest, we advanced through an 
intervening valley, meeting with little resistance 
from the retiring enemy, and passed through 
the gate into the town, where the garrison made 
a stubborn stand, and fierce fighting began. I 
skulked along from tree to tree, the sing-ine 
bullets showering twigs around me and knock- 
ing chunks of adobe from the house walls ; but 



ISO OCEAN TO OCEAN 

after fifteen minutes or so, finding myself ex- 
posed to an awkward cross-fire and fearing that 
my horse would be killed, leaving me to face 
certain death in the event of the repulse of the 
insurgents, I made my way back to the gate, 
where I could tie my steed in a sheltered posi- 
tion, and from near which I could command a 
pretty good view of the town. The fighting 
was still fierce, but the Government forces were 
gradually driven back to the vicinity of the 
cuartel, or barracks. Numbers of wounded 
passed me on their way to the rear, some 
slightly hurt, some badly injured and helped 
along by friends. One fellow, shot directly 
through the body, passed me at a gallop. His 
face was pale and drawn, his eyes half closed, 
and he reeled in the saddle like a drunken man, 
but when he passed out of sight over the crest 
of a neighboring hill he was still spurring his 
jaded steed with grim determination. I have 
often wondered what became of him, but I fear 
that only the buzzards know. 

About two o'clock the pangs of hunger as- 
sailed me, and I rode back to camp leaving the 
result of the battle still in doubt. 

Reaching Rivas early the next morning I 
found the Government forces in full possession. 
The sudden arrival of the " Victoria " with re- 
inforcements had enabled them to beat off the 
insurgents, who were in full retreat, no one 



SAN PABLO AND ESPINAL 15 1 

knew whither. A hospital which had been 
established was full of wounded ; but the town 
had recovered its equanimity with wonderful 
prompitude, and no one would have supposed 
that, a few hours before, bullets had been flying 
through the quiet streets. 

The commissioners had an interesting tale to 
tell. They were just sitting down to breakfast, 
when a volley of musketry announced the begin- 
ning of the fray, and almost instantly the house 
was filled to overflowing with women and chil- 
dren seeking the protection of our flag. The 
great doors were shut and barred, but one was 
soon opened again, that the impatient gentlemen 
might view the progress of the fight. A little 
Indian with the red hatband of the Government, 
one of a detachment of skirmishers, stood di- 
rectly outside, loading and firing with great speed 
and precision. A clatter of hoofs in the next 
street and a small party of green-ribboned cabal- 
leros dashed around the corner. Bang ! went the 
Indian's rifle, and a bit of adobe flew from a 
house wall four inches from the leader's head. 
Crack! went his revolver in reply, but he turned 
and galloped off, nevertheless, followed by his 
men. 

I went and called on Dr. Cole, who grinned 
and showed me a dozen holes in his flag, fifteen 
feet above the street. " That 's the way they 
shoot," he said. 



152 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

As I left town they were burying the dead in 
the cemetery where we had fought the day before. 
Some of the poor " volunteers " whom I had 
seen tied together like sheep and dragged to 
the barracks between files of soldiers, had found 
bloody graves. This method of obtaining sol- 
diers, by the way, does not seem to strike Nica- 
raguans as peculiar ; and when the story is told 
j of the officer who answered the President's tel- 
' egram " Send more volunteers," with a mes- 
sage, " Send more rope," they cannot understand 
why foreigners laugh. 

I believe that Nicaraguan troops are gener- 
ally underrated by travellers who have never 
seen them in action. Brave, of great endurance, 
capable of living on next to nothing, they have 
in them the making of exceptionally fine light 
infantry. While usually lacking in discipline, 
they do not hesitate to perform what they un- 
derstand to be their duty, as I found on more 
than one occasion, when, relying upon my na- 
tionality and my ignorance of Spanish, I under- 
took to pass outposts without the necessary 
countersign. A disregarded challenge was al- 
ways followed by an ominous clicking of locks, 
and a glance into the muzzles of a number of 
levelled rifles invariably convinced me of the 
wisdom of complying with the requirements of 
military law. 



CHAPTER VIII 

NARRATIVE — PARAISO AND EL PAVON 



T 



"^HE commissioners were much delayed 
in their journey toward Greytown, as 
the Government had seized the " Vic- 
toria" to transport troops and munitions of 
war, and they could not cross the lake ; but 
finally the last rumble of insurrection died 
away, and their interrupted travels were re- 
sumed. Shortly afterwards, having increased 
our party by the addition of the Davis brothers 
of Rivas, A. L. Scott, a coffee planter of Mata- 
galpa, and a number of natives, we moved to a 
place called Paraiso (Paradise), in the gorge 
of the Rio Grande. The first part of our way 
lay over llanos, but we soon plunged into the 
forest, travelling in a direction parallel to the 
canal line and making an occasional detour 
around the head of some rugged gully or 
muddy creek. A band of macheteros pre- 
ceded the carretas, cutting a way through the 
tangled underbrush, and frequently stopping to 
readjust the loads after wild plunges through 
deep ravines or over fallen trees, while I 
brought up the rear on horseback. Pan'ots 



154 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

screamed in the branches, monkeys chattered 
and grimaced, and herds of half-wild cattle 
stampeded at our approach. After many- 
hours of labor we reached our destination 
and, with speed born of experience, pitched our 
tents and established ourselves comfortably. 

We were camped in a dense virgin forest on 
the banks of the Rio Grande, which at that 
point winds circuitously through a sort of 
canon amidst precipitous hills. The stream, 
nearly dry at that season, bounded the camp 
on three sides, and across it were steep, rocky 
bluffs crowned with gnarled madrofios and 
an impenetrable thicket of underbrush. The 
country was the roughest which we had seen, 
and, but for the hard, gravelly bed of the river, 
which was crossed and recrossed by the line, 
we should have found it difficult to get about. 
Rivas was a thing of the past, as far as we 
were concerned, and neighbors were not nu- 
merous, but we had a large party, thirty-seven 
men, and therefore did not feel at all isolated. 
Our camp was by far the most attractive which 
we had had. We cleared out the underbrush, 
leaving the large trees for shade, and the forest 
around us, always rustling in the ever present 
breath of the trades, shut us in like a green 
wall. A tiny thread of water, winding along 
the stony bed of the river's gorge and con- 
necting clear, deep pools where one might 



PARAISO AND EL PA VON 155 

bathe at will, furnished an abundant supply of 
drinking water, and to it came all the beasts of 
the forest every night. Pumas crept with 
stealthy steps to old familiar pools, and deer, 
which through the heat of the day had lain 
concealed in shady brakes, ventured forth as 
daylight died, to drink and browse till dawn. 
All through the night, while the moon sailed 
by above us, we heard strange noises from the 
sombre depths of the woods, and doubtless wild 
eyes glared at us, as their owners wondered 
what strange beings had invaded the privacy 
of their domains. It was not until the South- 
ern Cross had set and the cook's fire had 
begun to crackle and throw dancing shadows 
on the wall of green around us that the forest 
world was still ; and then the eastern sky 
brightened to a pallid gray, and we tumbled 
out to breakfast and another day's hard work. 
And hard work it was, with various annoy- 
ances in the shape of heat, insects, and an all- 
encircling plague of '' pica-pica^ Garrapatas, 
or minute ticks, swarmed everywhere, dropping 
or blowing from the foliage upon their helpless 
prey, while myriads of wasps and ants con- 
ducted their attacks with a method and pre- 
cision worthy of an army. In the middle of 
the day the sun was extremely hot, but as 
most of the country was heavily timbered 
and a breeze blew constantly across the lake 



156 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

from the Caribbean Sea, we got along very 
well. 

Large numbers of monkeys inhabited the 
adjacent forests, great black fellows called 
congos by the natives, white-faced little fellows 
of evident Hibernian extraction, and cinnamon 
monkeys in abundance. Their howling was 
very troublesome at night, for one small mico 
makes a noise resembling in tone and volume 
the barking of a large Newfoundland dog. I can 
imagine that a night in those woods, to one un- 
accustomed to it and ignorant of the origin of 
the various sounds, would be a hair-raising expe- 
rience. Near our tents grew a clump of trees 
bearing small red berries, of which the monkeys 
were very fond ; but alas ! had they been 
brandied cherries, intoxication could not have 
followed their use more surely and rapidly. 
No doubt to a philanthropic evolutionist a 
campful of drunken monkeys would be a sor- 
rowful and prophetic spectacle, but to us it was 
supremely ludicrous and I am sure we shall 
never forget some of the absurd antics which 
we witnessed. 

The females carry their young on their 
backs or clinging about their necks, and we 
obtained several little fellows by shooting the 
mothers. The method was not so cruel as it 
seems, a liberal use of the rifle being necessary 
to keep them out of camp. The youngsters 



PARAISO AND EL PA VON 1 57 

made amusing pets, but were extremely mis- 
chievous and invariably met with tragic 
ends. 

By the time we reached Paraiso the less de- 
sirable members of our native force had been 
dispensed with, leaving an efficient set of men, 
most of whom remained with us until the end 
of the work. Simple, ignorant, credulous, 
friendly, there were many of whom I shall 
always cherish the pleasantest recollections. 
Old Nicanor, short, bow-legged, his swarthy 
face protected by a grizzled beard, was patriarch 
and capataz in one. Kind-hearted, diplomatic, 
a fount of sage advice and backwoods wisdom, 
he ruled his motley crew judiciously and well. 
Here 's to thee, Nicanor ; may thy shadow 
never grow less ! An ambiguous wish, per- 
haps, where twice a year the sun is vertical at 
noon. 

And Mariano Tenorio, has his story ever 
ended 1 Begun at San Pablo, it dragged its 
weary length through each successive camp, 
and being guiltless of plot and interspersed with 
philosophical reflections and commentaries, 
there was no reason why it should not last as 
long as its narrator. 

Jesus Acebedo, swarthy, melancholy, pictur- 
esque brigand, never so friendly and elaborately 
civil as when the fumes of agziardiejtte were 
wafted in thy wake ; Emilo, Cruz, Virgilio, sage, 



1.58 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

courtier, and buffoon, how fares the world with 
you? 

On the twenty-third of March we moved to 
El Pavon, where the Rio Grande enters the 
Tola Basin. Leaving Paraiso we traversed 
rolling hills, crossed a broad and fertile plain 
at the mouth of the Guachipilin creek, amid 
fields of indigo and groves of plantain trees, 
and plunged into the rocky, heavily timbered 
valley of the Rio Grande, bounded by ranges 
of high hills about a quarter of a mile apart 
and seamed and scarred by waterworn gullies. 
A road passable for carretas led to within half 
a mile of the camp site, and our macheteros 
soon cut a passage for the remaining distance. 
The location of our new home was an ideal 
one. A huge tree with long, straight trunk 
and spreading branches arose in the midst of 
a clearing large enough to contain our tents, 
giving a cathedral-like effect to the camp ; and 
on two sides was the deep-cut, gravelly river- 
bed, along which flowed a small but all-sufficient 
stream connecting quiet pools. Around us 
rustled the familiar forest, teeming with savage 
denizens. Deer, peccaries, pumas, sloths, ar- 
madillos, monkeys, iguanas, pisotes (Nasua 
ftisca, a small animal resembling the raccoon), 
and guatuzas, or agoutis, tempted the hunter's 
skill, but tangled thickets and clinging vines 
were almost insuperable obstacles to any but 



PAR Also AND EL PA VON 1 59 

the natives. These vines were remarkably 
tenacious of life, and when cut off as high as a 
man could reach, sent out shoots which in two 
or three weeks reached to the ground and took 
root. 

Above us was the rough country which we had 
traversed ; below, the broad alluvial plain of the 
Tola Basin stretched, flat and thickly wooded, 
to the La Flor hills three miles away, through 
which the river has cut a gap enabling it to 
flow onward to the blue Pacific. Herds of 
cattle roamed the trackless woods, deer bounded 
through the thickets, and from peaks of the 
encircUng hills glints of silver to the westward 
marked the ever restless sea. In long rides 
along the gravelly river-bed or tangled cattle 
trails to the eastward, I passed little clearings 
and cottages where groups of half nude, sun- 
browned women stood knee-deep in w^ater, 
washing clothes, gossiping and lazily puffing 
wreaths of blue smoke from puros of domestic 
make. Few men were to be seen, for the 
political sky was dark, and recruits were in 
demand, but occasionally our picket line struck 
little huts hidden in dense clumps of bushes, 
where peace-loving natives led the lives of 
hunted beasts rather than become unwilling 
candidates for military glory. 

Near the beginning of the Tola Basin, about 
ten and a half miles from the lake, was a large 



l6o OCEAN TO OCEAN 

tree with a hole in it through which the old 
Canal Company's line had passed. Although 
Vvre had been unable to verify our original course 
and had found no reliable monument along the 
way to which to tie, we passed through the 
same hole, thus checking both the previous 
work and our own to our satisfaction. 

Large numbers of beef cattle are raised in 
the canal belt, some for home consumption, 
and many for export to Costa Rica, where a 
good market may always be found. Other 
products are corn, plantains, sugar, coffee, 
cacao, and indigo. Three crops of corn a year 
are frequently raised on the same ground, and 
plantains and sugar-cane thrive. Coffee does 
well if shaded, and cacao plantations are profit- 
able, but require much care during the first 
few years. Indigo is little raised, as its culture 
and subsequent preparation require the utmost 
care, and modern aniline dyes have greatly 
lessened its value. The more common tropical 
fruits are produced in sufficient quantities, but 
little attention is paid to quality. Mangoes, 
oranges, lemons, limes, pineapples, alligator 
pears, and cocoanuts are the varieties most in 
use. 

Near El Pavon the deadly coral snake was 
common, — we killed one in our tent, — and 
multitudes of scorpions kept us in a continual 
state of watchfulness, which however, did not 



PAR Also AND EL PA VON l6l 

prevent several of us from being badly stung. 
But the strangest creature which we saw was 
the arano de caballo, or horse spider, a great 
hairy beast with body nearly as large as a girl's 
fist, and legs long in proportion. It attacks 
horses in the pasture, biting them just above 
the coronet and causing an inflammation which 
finally results in the loss of the victim's hoof, 
crippling him for about a year. We secured 
numerous fine specimens, which I tried to pre- 
serve in alcohol, but in getting them into a 
wide-mouthed pickle jar several of the legs, 
which are very insecurely attached to the body, 
invariably dropped off. Upon encountering 
one unexpectedly I struck at him with a stick, 
depriving him of two legs, but he made off" with 
surprising agility upon the remaining ones, 
apparently none the worse for the loss he had 
sustained. 

Another interesting but troublesome insect 
was the nigua or chigoe^ with which we all had 
more or less experience. It is said to resemble 
a small flea, but I cannot speak from personal 
acquaintance, my observations being confined 
to the results of its operations. The female of 
the species buries herself in human flesh, usu- 
ally between the toes, the warmth of which 
develops her eggs until she becomes a distended 
sac the size of a pea. Should the eggs hatch, 
a dangerous sore is the result, but the trouble 



l62 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

is usually noticed before it has reached an ad- 
vanced stage and is easily remedied by carefully 
cutting out the sac without breaking it and 
anointing the wound with the natives' univer- 
sal remedy, kerosene. I once broke a sac in 
removing it from my foot, but upon carefully 
scraping the wound and dressing it with anti- 
septic cotton no ill effects followed. 

Near camp were several matapalos, rem.ark- 
able growths half vine, half tree, which bear the 
same relation to the vegetable world that boa 
constrictors do to the animal kingdom. Grow- 
ing around forest trees, they gradually inclose 
and kill them with their interlacing limbs, the 
dead and branching skeletons frequently stand- 
ing long after the last signs of life are gone. 

I think it was at El Pavon that we first found 
courage to eat iguanas. These animals, which 
abound throughout Nicaragua, are repulsive- 
looking lizards, sometimes attaining a length of 
five or six feet, with loose skins covered with 
scales, serrated crests along their backs and 
flabby pouches beneath their jaws. They live 
almost entirely in trees, subsisting on leaves, 
but take readily to the water and perhaps vary 
their vegetarianism with an occasional fish. 
Their flesh is excellent, far superior to chicken, 
and their eggs, which they lay in sand banks, 
are considered great delicacies by the natives. 




CHAPTER IX 

NARRATIVE — LA FLOR 

N the twenty-third day of April we 
moved to La Flor and camped on the 
bank of the Rio Grande below the site 
of the proposed dam. As usual, we were in the 
woods, and while we had not the great green 
amphitheatre which had made El Pavon so 
pleasant, we were well situated in a clearing 
just large enough to hold us comfortably, with 
a fine view of the river— a small stream at that 
season — and plenty of shade. There were 
eight or ten houses within a radius of half a mile, 
and we saw more of the natives than before.' 
Although rather below our standard of height 
they were extremely well formed, particulady 
the women, whose graceful figures, erect car- 
nage, clear, dark complexions and liquid black 
eyes made them far from unattractive. Both 
men and women are indolent by nature, but 
showed great physical endurance upon occasion, 
walking surprising distances barefooted or shod 
only with sandals of primitive design. The 
women throughout the country seemed more 
mdustrious than the men, cutting wood, cook- 



1 64 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

ing, or standing in the river hours at a time, 
with strips of cloth twisted around their loins, 
washing clothes ; while their lords and masters, 
after a few hours' work in the early morning, 
lay about in the shade or rode to visit their 
neighbors. Sobriety was an unappreciated 
virtue among them and their morals were not 
of the best, but they were a simple, childlike 
race, who perhaps should not be blamed for 
lacking qualities which they had never been 
taught to value. 

We saw many specimens of the zumpopo, or 
leaf-cutting ant {CEcodoma\ a curious insect with 
which we first became acquainted at El Pavon. 
These ants select a bush or a limb of a tree and 
strip it of leaves, cutting them away piecemeal 
and carrying the fragments to their nests. Each 
ant selects a leaf and cuts off a piece by nipping 
a series of holes so near together that when her 
work is completed the fragment may easily be 
detached. During this process her head moves 
in the circumference of a circle of which her 
hind legs are the center. The piece once ob- 
tained, she carries it off, holding it erect with 
its plane parallel to the direction in which she 
is movino^. These interestinsf creatures move 
in dense armies and resemble processions of 
minute sail boats bobbing along in a choppy 
sea. They soon wear a path six or eight inches 
wide which is easily distinguishable at a dis- 



LA FLOR 165 

tance of fifteen or twenty feet. They do not 
eat the leaves, but take them to their subterra- 
nean nests and use them as a compost upon 
which grows a species of minute white fungus 
which serves them as food. The nests are 
described by Mr. Belt as consisting of numerous 
rounded chambers, each as large as a man's head, 
connected by tunnelled passages, and three 
parts filled with " a speckled brown, flocculent, 
spongy-looking mass of a light and loosely con- 
nected substance " composed of minutely sub- 
divided leaves tied together by white fungus. 
The subterranean chambers communicate with 
the outer world by numerous holes which, as 
they are alternately opened and closed by the 
inhabitants, are presumably for purposes of 
ventilation and to permit the maintenance of 
an equable temperature. These mushroom- 
eating ants were among the most remarkable 
insects which I observed in Nicaragua. 

Other interesting but more troublesome 
neighbors were the wood-eating white ants, 
voracious animals which live in the ground or 
in large mud nests built in trees, and under 
ordinary circumstances never see the light of 
day. They build mud tunnels wherever they 
go, and live and work inside them. A thread 
of mud along any article means danger, and 
the chances are that if it be broken, thousands 
of ants will swarm forth, and the object beneath 



1 66 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

will be found badly eaten. They do not con- 
fine themselves to wood, but attack nearly every- 
thing, human beings included. The first night 
which we spent at La Flor, I unwittingly pitched 
my cot directly over one of their tunnels, which 
I broke in the process. When they resumed 
their interrupted march, they preferred to do 
so by way of my bed, — up one leg, diagonally 
across and down the other. I did not sleep 
much that night, and it took two men all the 
next day to induce them to change their route. 

About half past ten on the morning of 
the 29th of April, Mr. Harden and I were 
sitting in the office tent computing a traverse, 
when the improvised table began to rattle, the 
tent to shake, and the monkeys in the neighbor- 
ing trees to howl lugubriously. Cook and camp 
boy fell upon their knees, crossing themselves 
and muttering prayers, the trees swayed vio- 
lently to and fro, dead branches came crashing 
to the ground, and all was discord in the forest 
world. A moment and it had passed. The 
monkeys stopped their howling, prayers ceased 
abruptly, and the day's occupations were re- 
sumed. Un temblor, that was all. 

Until the rainy season began, there were 
dances every moonlight night at the house 
of an old woman who, for a trifling consid- 
eration, dispensed aguardiente of astounding 
strength. The sight was always extremely 



LA FLOR 167 

picturesque. A little thatched hut with its 
walls of poles, through which the feeble light 
of a single dip flickered uncertainly ; the forest 
in the background, black and grim against a 
flood of moonlight; the crowd of merry-makers, 
black-eyed country girls, and white-clad mozos 
(peasants), their cigarette tips glowing like fire- 
flies as they danced strange native dances to 
the half barbaric music of mirimba and guitar, 
all combined to produce a scene of strange 
interest and beauty. Spurs jingled on naked 
feet, machetes swung and clashed, and as the 
fumes of aguardiente perfumed the cool night 
air the dancers' pace increased. In their last 
stages these affairs were not always pleasant 
spectacles, but we usually left early, mindful 
of the morrow. 

The mirimba is an instrument resembling 
a zylophone, and is composed of two long 
pieces of wood spanned by little hard-wood 
slabs of varying length, with empty gourds be- 
neath them. The slabs are struck with rubber- 
tipped sticks, emitting clear and musical tones. 
Soft bits of wax covering holes in the gourds 
are pressed in or out to regulate the pitch. 

Late each afternoon camp was invaded by 
native girls selling cajetas and dukes (cakes 
and sweetmeats), bare-armed, bare-legged lasses 
with skirts kilted to their knees, and great, flat 
wooden dishes hewn from sections of tree 



l68 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

trunks, upon their heads. Their wares were 
fearfully and wonderfully made — corn meal, 
chocolate, sugar, honey, and fruits being com- 
mon ingredients — but they met with ready 
sale, particularly if the vendors were person- 
ally attractive and quick at understanding dis- 
jointed and unidiomatic Spanish. 

One night we went to a fiesta celebrated at 
a little house a quarter of a mile from camp 
and attended by everybody in the neighbor- 
hood. As the river was somewhat high, we 
engaged a mozo whom we met near the ford, 
to carry us over on his back, each of us giving 
him a small sum in payment ; and it was hard 
to know whether to laugh or to feel embar- 
rassed when, upon reaching the scene of the 
festivities, he came forward and courteously 
welcomed us to his home. Beneath a little 
thatched shed was an altar supporting a plas- 
ter image of the Saint whose day it was, 
surrounded by bright-colored cloths and rib- 
bons, and lighted by several home-made candies. 
After a long period of silent meditation, an old 
white-haired man, famous for his devoutness 
and retentive memory, stepped forward and 
delivered a long exhortation, clothed in lan- 
guage which was quite unintelligible to us, but 
which evidently made a deep impression upon 
the natives. At the close of his harangue, his 
hearers stepped forward, one at a time, bowed 



LA FLOR 169 

low before the image, and retired, after which 
the candles were extinguished, a mirimba 
brought forth, and the evening ended with 
music and dancing. 

At these social gatherings of the natives, 
various forms of frescos^ or cool drinks, are 
served. Gtcarapo^ or fermented cane juice, ancj/ 
tiste — made of parched corn, chocolate, sugar 
and water — are common and delicious. The 
latter is very nourishing, and many natives 
never travel without a little bag of the dry in- 
gredients, which, mingled with water from the 
nearest stream, furnish a refreshing substitute 
for lunch. 

Early in May the strong, cool breeze from 
the Caribbean Sea failed us, and both days and 
nights became extremely hot, but on the even- 
ing of the seventeenth we had a violent shower, 
and on the twenty- first the heavy downfall of 
the tropical winter burst upon us. It rained 
all night with great violence, and in the morn- 
ing the floor of the tent was a mass of mud and 
water, through which the men, in shrunken 
duck trousers and clammy flannel shirts, with 
bare feet thrust into soggy slippers, picked 
their way, while innumerable little rivulets 
from various leaks in the tarpaulin besprinkled 
all impartially. I awoke before daylight, to find 
myself lying in a pool of water, which was fed 
by several minute leaks above me, and nearly 



I/O OCEAN TO OCEAN 

every one else fared likewise, Harden and 
Powell being the only ones who kept reason- 
ably dry. Could we have dried our bedding, 
it would not have mattered, but it rained 
steadily for a w^eek, after which the sun fought 
its way through the clouds, and we had good 
weather, with two or three showers a day and 
rain every night. It proved practicable to keep 
dry by suspending rubber blankets over our 
beds, but we came near having no tent to pro- 
tect us, for early one morning, just before we 
went to work, a great dead limb from an over- 
hanging tree, which had been concealed by 
vines, came crashing down upon us, wrecking 
the tarpaulin and nearly killing several of us. 
I at once sent some men to hunt rubber trees, 
and with the aid of old trousers, a sail needle, 
and plenty of rubber, we soon repaired damages 
to a great extent. 

After the first rain the Rio Grande became 
a turbid, roaring torrent, rising with astonish- 
ing rapidity, eroding its banks and whirling 
uprooted trees and tangled debris to the sea. 
The dripping woods, parched by six months of 
sun, burst into life anew. Rank weeds sprang 
from lately barren soil, and insect life increased 
an hundredfold. Mosquitoes, gnats, and flies 
invaded our camp in swarms, but a marked de- 
crease in the number of ticks somewhat recon- 
ciled us to this new infliction. 



LA FLOR 171 

In June we received a visit from Mr. 
Wheeler, the chief engineer, who was desir- 
ous of studying the country between the lake 
and Brito, and with whom I rode over the en- 
tire line. After a day spent in the lower Rio 
Grande valley, examining into harbor possibili- 
ties at Brito and obtaining a general idea of 
the country, we decided to go to San Juan del 
Sur — which we had not seen — before our prog- 
ress eastward along the line, and probable bad 
weather, should make the project more difficult 
of accomplishment. Accordingly we left camp 
next morning immediately after breakfast, tak- 
ing old Nicanor as guide. Fording the river 
and traversing a broad stretch oi potrero, dotted 
with cattle and the blackened stumps of giant 
trees, we crossed the stream again at the Brito 
hacienda, and struck into a woodland trail lead- 
ing gradually upwards toward the crest of the 
row of hills bounding the river's silted estuary 
to the eastward. As we advanced the path 
grew rougher and steeper, but our horses clam- 
bered along until we emerged upon a lofty sum- 
mit, whence we could see out over the valley 
to the purple hills beyond, while to the south- 
ward stretched a long expanse of coast, beaches 
01 dazzling sand alternating with rocky, jutting 
headlands, cut by the elements into grotesque 
forms and licked by a row of seething break- 
ers. Plunging down on the seaward side, over 



1/2 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

a trail so steep that Mr. Wheeler, who is a large 
and heavy man and was riding a little weak- 
kneed pony about the size of a donkey, was 
obliged to walk, we finally reached a rolling, 
wooded plain. The path wound along through 
thickets of cane and under giant trees knit to- 
gether by masses of clinging vines, occasionally 
branching in so many directions that Nicanor, 
good woodsman as he was, led us astray and 
had to retrace his way. Noon found us wan- 
dering amidst a labyrinth of paths and dry 
watercourses, and we stopped to rest our weary- 
steeds and to refresh ourselves. In the hurry 
of departure I had commissioned our capataz 
to provide a suitable lunch, which he had done 
to his own satisfaction by wrapping three hard- 
boiled eggs and some hardtack in his necker- 
chief and putting them in his pocket. One of 
the eggs proved to contain a well-developed 
chicken, the hardtack was full of weevils, and 
the only water we could procure came from a 
stagnant roadside pool replete with wriggling 
life. Nevertheless we allayed the pangs of 
hunger, tightened our horses' girths, pushed on, 
and emerged from the woods upon the sea 
beach early in the afternoon. Trotting briskly 
along the hard, wet sand for several miles, occa- 
sionally clambering over a jutting, rocky point, 
we turned inland again, climbed a steep and 
muddy hill, and came out upon the " Transit " 



LA FLOR 173 

road near the town. Winding along the edge 
of a precipitous gorge, we descended into a fer- 
tile valley, followed the bank of a pretty stream 
whence laughing lavanderas (washerwomen) 
called " adios " to us, and entered the town. 

San Juan del Sur is beautifully situated on a 
small indentation of the coast bounded by pre- 
cipitous headlands and lined with a shelving 
beach of white sand. The cable station, a 
handsome and substantial building, and num- 
erous wooden houses, with galvanized, corru- 
gated iron roofs, mingle with native cabins, and 
give an odd, mongrel appearance to the place. 
The only hotel is a small and squalid structure 
built around three sides of a square and con- 
taining unfurnished bedrooms of rough plank. 
The windows overlook stagnant pools of filth, 
pigs grunt and root beneath the dining table, 
and ducks and chickens wander at will about 
the premises. A high and precipitous promon- 
tory bounding the harbor on the south is 
crowned by a small, ruined fort and wooden 
beacon, to which I climbed by a winding wood- 
land path. Finding the garrison fast asleep on 
his back, his face turned to the blazing after- 
noon sun and an empty aguardiente bottle by 
his side, I appropriated and hid his rifle as a 
precautionary measure before sitting down to 
regain my breath and enjoy the beautiful pano- 
rama spread out before me. To the westward, 



174 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

gulls were wheeling against the azure sky; 
below, the restless ocean churned itself to foam 
against the rocky shore, or dashed in spumy 
breakers on the shining beach; and from the 
northeastward a little stream wound like a 
thread of silver through a green alluvial plain 
bounded by rocky hills crowned with a forest 
growth, to mingle with the ocean far beneath. 
Regretfully I left the breezy headland and re- 
traced my steps through shady paths to the 
little village nestling at its foot. 

The few remaining hours of the afternoon 
proved sufficient for our sight-seeing, and early 
the next morning we started upon our return to 
camp. For the first few miles we followed the 
old Vanderbilt Transit Road, which runs from 
San Juan to Virgin Bay, and which, although 
neglected for many years past, is still in excel- 
lent condition ; then, turning to the left, we 
took the " telegraph road," which crosses a 
broad stretch of llano toward Rivas. Except 
for occasional mud holes, where our horses 
floundered belly-deep, it was in fairly good con- 
dition; but two months later, in the same 
place, my horse and I came near perishing to- 
gether, literally drowned in a sea of mud. After 
a very hard day's ride we reached camp, with 
an accurate idea of tropical travel in the rainy 
season and a keen appreciation of the charms 
of a canvas cot. 



LA FLOR 175 

The following morning we started along the 
line toward the lake, expecting to reach Bull's 
hydrographic camp near the mouth of the Rio 
Las Lajas early in the afternoon, and to spend 
the night in Rivas. The horses w^e had ridden 
to San Juan were taking a well earned rest, and 
with fresh mounts we jogged along past El 
Pavon and into the bed of the Rio Grande 
near Paraiso. Luckily there had been com- 
paratively little rain for some days, and the 
river — which falls as rapidly as it rises — was so 
low that we could follow it to the point where 
the line leaves it and crosses the continental 
divide. There our troubles began. The broad 
expanse of llano which constitutes the summit 
had become a spongy bog, through which our 
horses struggled slowly and with great difficulty. 
It was sometimes necessary to dismount and 
wade knee-deep through mud, our steeds fol- 
lowing with dejected heads, their hoofs sucking 
like plungers of defective pumps, as they 
dragged them from the sticky clay. 

Beyond the telegraph road it was better 
country, and early in the afternoon we reached 
the shore, glad to sit down under Bull's hospi- 
table canvas roof and let the lake winds fan 
our brows. Mr. Wheeler decided to remain 
there for the night, but I pressed on, despite 
Nicanor's groans, intending to return to camp 
by way of Rivas. Our horses were somewhat 



176 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

spent, the roads were bad, and midway between 
Rivas and La Flor night overtook us. We were 
just entering upon a wild and rocky country 
where the trail, never easy to follow, wound 
among mountain torrents, rocky gullies, and 
tangled woods. Guiding our steeds as best we 
could and bending over our saddle-bows to 
avoid overhanging branches, we rode along 
until within two or three miles of camp, when, 
in the inky blackness, we completely lost our 
bearinsfs and came to a halt. As we were de- 
bating what to do, a gleam of light in the dis- 
tance caught my eye, and in answer to our hail 
the familiar voice of one of our own men came 
faintly to our ears. He had been to see a friend, 
and was returning to camp, lantern on arm, just 
In time to rescue us from an awkward situation. 
Following his dancing light we reached camp 
in safety, both horses nearly dead and old Ni- 
canor's opinion of the foolish energy of Ameri- 
canos greatly augmented. 

As our stay at La Flor drew to a close, the 
men began to chafe under the monotony of 
camp life and to seek variety by spending their 
Sundays in Rivas whenever propitious weather 
and available horseflesh combined to make it 
possible. The hotel at which they put up was 
kept by an old Englishman called " Jimmy," 
who had been there since the bonanza days of 
the Vanderbilt Transit Company. It was a 



LA FLOR 177 

one-storied, whitewashed building, undistin- 
guishable from its neighbors, except for the 
sign which proclaimed it a public-house. The 
arriving caballero rode in by the front door, 
through the parlor and into the patio, which, 
as usual in Central American houses, served as 
dining-room. Here the steed remained until 
one of the numerous domestics found time to 
lead him into the kitchen and tie him in a far 
corner. Meanwhile the guest was shown to 
one of the great, brick-paved, square rooms con- 
taining three or four canvas cots covered with 
thin, white counterpanes and protected by mos- 
quito nettings, an enormous hammock, a couple 
of chairs and a water monkey with glasses. 
There was no ceiling, and the roof consisted of 
roughly hewn timbers supporting poles covered 
with red tiles. The partitions extended only to 
the eaves, consequently convivial neighbors and 
the multitude of bats which infested the place 
sometimes made slumber difBcult. The estab- 
lishment was palatial, however, compared with 
that at San Juan del Sur, where I slept in a 
bare wooden stall filled with the odors of an 
adjacent filthy pool, and where the dusky hand- 
maiden was obliged to drive a large sow and 
a litter of pigs from beneath the table before I 
could sit down to breakfast. 



CHAPTER X 

NARRATIVE — TOLA AND EL CARMEN 

ON the twenty-seventh of June we fin- 
ished our survey of the belt of country 
available for canal construction. From 
our initial point on the lake shore we had run 
for a mile and a third up the rolling, partially 
wooded valley of the Rio Las Lajas, left it near 
the mouth of Guiscoyol Creek to follow the 
course of that stream through tangled thickets 
to the flat llanos of the continental divide, 
crossed the summit at an elevation of a hun- 
dred and fifty-four feet above the sea, plunged 
into dense woods, and entered the rocky valley 
of the Rio Grande, which we followed through 
a deep ravine and a broad but rocky valley into 
the flat alluvial plain of the Tola Basin. Sweep- 
ing gradually to the left, we had crossed this 
wooded plain, emerging through the narrow 
gap in the La Flor hills cut by the busy river, 
and traversed broad, gently sloping potreros 
and matted woodland to the beach at Brito. 
In order to map the adjacent country we had 
run large numbers of auxiliary lines from the 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN 1 79 

main line ; thus our progress was slow, particu- 
larly near Brito headland, where the river valley- 
is a silted estuary extensively inundated at high 
tide and partially overgrown with a tangled 
mangrove forest. 

The project of the Maritime Canal Company 
contemplated the conversion of the Tola Basin 
into an inland harbor four thousand acres in 
extent, by means of a dam in the La Flor 
hills, which should hold the water at the lake 
level, assumed to be one hundred and ten feet 
above the sea. In order to determine the boun- 
daries of this proposed harbor it was necessary 
to run a line along the ranges of hills bounding 
the valley on the east and west ; and to accom- 
plish this we moved camp to a centrally located 
point about one and a fifth miles from the little 
town of Tola. 

The river, swollen by heavy rains, prevented 
our passage until the last day of the month, 
but early that morning we crossed the La Flor 
ford and struck into the woods to the north- 
ward, followed by the usual caravan of car- 
retas and barefooted mozos. The road used in 
the dry season proved absolutely impassable, 
nor was it of much service as a guide, for it 
branched at places into a dozen widely diver- 
gent trails, and was sometimes lost completely 
in rank, rapidly growing vegetation. Fortu- 
nately the forest consisted of giant trees com- 



l80 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

paratively free from vines and large underbrush ; 
and therefore, by winding along carefully we 
crashed through weeds and thickets with little 
cutting. About noon we reached our camp site 
upon the point of a promontory of high land pro- 
jecting from the bounding hills to the west- 
ward, and overlooking the Rio Tola, a little 
stream of comparatively constant volume emp- 
tying into the Rio Grande. Although we 
had become skilful in pitching camp, each 
man understanding the essentials of comfort 
and knowing how to obtain them with the 
least expenditure of time and energy, the sat- 
urated condition of the forest rendered the 
preparation of a suitable abiding place a mat- 
ter of much difficulty. Trees and brush which 
had been cut away to make room for the tents, 
refused to burn, and were piled in heaps, afford- 
ing shelter to hundreds of scorpions and centi- 
pedes, while the clearing thus painfully obtained 
was soon trodden into a mass of mud which 
never dried even under the sheltering tarpaulins. 
The tents were ditched and drained, but the 
showers which occurred with discouraging fre- 
quency were so violent as to drive a mist of rain 
through the oiled canvas, and to cause nu- 
merous leaks to play like fountains upon the 
ground beneath. Keeping dry in the field 
was out of the question, and we had long ago 
become accustomed to several soakings a day. 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN l8l 

The Instruments, although protected by rubber 
bags, clouded up so as to be unfit for use, and 
much time was lost in taking them to pieces 
and carefully drying tubes and lenses ; while 
the heavy condition of the country and the 
long walks necessary to reach some parts of 
the work told upon the men, and made rapid 
progress impossible. 

But on rare days of sunshine our surround- 
ings were not unattractive. A narrow trail 
leading to the Tola road wound over the crest 
of the high spur on whose point we were en- 
camped, and from its highest spot the eye 
might range at will over mile upon mile of 
gently undulating forest bounded by unbroken 
ranges of rugged hills rising abruptly from the 
plain and bathed in brilliant sunshine or dark- 
ened by the swiftly passing shadow of a cloud. 
Small hillocks, rising like islands in a sea of 
green, were scattered here and there, emphasiz- 
ing the general uniformity of level due partly 
to the alluvial origin of the land, partly to the 
equalizing effect of the forest ; for the trees grow 
higher in hollows than on ridges. Each day 
the view was different, though the same. Per- 
haps the valley lay like a mirage, no tree top 
stirring in the heavy air which trembled with 
the heat. Or else a storm arose ; great banks 
of vapor rolled over the encircling hills, filling 
the valley with a sea of mist ; from darkening 



1 82 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

clouds the lightning flashed and thunder 
roared ; the giants of the forest groaned and 
creaked before the rising blast, which bent 
young saplings almost to the earth and stripped 
them of their leaves ; and then the rain began, 
the stinging drops flying like missiles from an 
unseen sling to rattle in the foliage overhead 
or to rebound in spray from the unsheltered 
surface of the trail. Thus Nature's varying 
moods became familiar to us and, as we learned 
to know her better, discomforts dwindled into 
nothingness, and isolation seemed no hardship. 
During the first few days camp was infested 
with rats, but an unexpected ally appeared upon 
the scene and dispersed them most effectually. 
Strolling from the mess tent one evening after 
supper, we came upon a huge snake in the 
very act of swallowing one of our tormentors. 
Restraining a natural impulse to seize a machete 
and decapitate our uninvited guest, we watched 
him dispose of his rat and glide off into the 
jungle. Nearly every night after that he 
visited the camp, winding silently around be- 
neath our cots, the occasional rattle of a box 
or tin can alone betokening his presence. The 
rats disappeared with magical rapidity, and 
although the idea of our nocturnal visitor was 
at first distasteful to us, we soon became ac- 
customed to it and looked upon him as a 
friend. He was not venomous, being of a 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN 1 83 

variety frequently domesticated in towns to 
prevent the encroachment of vermin. 

We killed a fine specimen of the dreaded coral 
snake between the office tent and the kitchen. 
He was of unusual size, five feet and four 
inches long, but my efforts to preserve the 
skin proved unavailing, heat and moisture 
breeding a mass of corruption which made 
speedy cremation necessary. The brush and 
rotting logs which lay about our little clearing, 
too wet to burn, furnished a refuge for quantities 
of scorpions, whose presence was a constant 
source of discomfort to us. The ordinary 
house scorpion found in Nicaraguan towns is 
little to be feared, although he sometimes at- 
tains great size, but the scorpion of the forest 
is a venomous beast, whose sting is exceedingly 
painful and frequently attended by nausea, 
local paralysis, and an annoying swelling of the 
tongue. After being twice stung and subse- 
quently shaking a monster from my shoe one 
morning, I conceived a dislike for the species, 
which made me welcome the appearance of an 
army of ecitons, or carnivorous foraging ants, 
who waged a bitter war against the scorpions 
with ultimate success. Scouring the brush 
heaps in large force and with admirable method 
and precision, the little hunters drove their 
prey from their hiding places, swarmed all 
over them, attacking them between the joints 



1 84 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

of their armor, and, despite desperate and pro- 
longed resistance, eventually tore them limb 
from limb. Nor were scorpions their only 
victims ; beetles, spiders, centipedes, and even 
birds fell before the fierce insects, whose no- 
madic habits are perhaps due to the fact that 
they soon depopulate their immediate neigh- 
borhood. Fortunately they did not invade our 
tents, perhaps because we had freely scattered 
lime about. 

Nearly the entire Tola Basin was heavily 
timbered, a goodly number of rubber trees 
mingling with less valuable varieties. Not 
far from camp were two cacao plantations, 
and in the vicinity of the town a good deal of 
land was cultivated. A road, unusually good 
for Nicaragua, led from Tola to Rivas, passing 
through a beautiful and fertile country dotted 
with well-kept plantations and cattle haciendas ; 
along this road ran a portion of our line, to 
the great distress of the city fathers, who repre- 
sented to us that prominent citizens returning 
home Sunday nights in a state of unstable 
equilibrium, might fall over the stakes and ex- 
coriate themselves. Their appeal failing to 
alter our method of procedure, they resorted 
to the simple expedient of pulling the stakes 
as fast as we drove them, but in our absence. 

My thoughts never revert to our Tola camp 
without conjuring up visions of clouds of butter- 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN 1 85 

flies, myriads of which fluttered through the ad- 
jacent woods. Of all sizes, shapes, and degrees 
of beauty, they fluttered here and there, a veri- 
table rainbow of color. The most interesting, 
though far from the most beautiful, variety 
which we saw is known to naturalists as the 
Kallima Paralekta. It is a light green but- 
terfly which, when at rest, bears so striking a 
resemblance to a leaf that only by the most 
careful scrutiny can its true nature be dis- 
covered. I had probably seen hundreds with- 
out suspecting that they were not leaves, when 
one day I accidentally captured several while 
pursuing a great blue butterfly of the genus 
Morpkeo. After that I noticed large numbers 
of them, and often amused myself by trying to 
detect them among the leaves — by no means 
an easy task. 

A natural phenomenon of a different descrip- 
tion was a rippling little stream which flowed par- 
allel to the La Flor road for some distance, and 
then — disappeared. The explanation was sim- 
ple enough. It flowed along until it reached a 
bank of porous gravel into which it sunk, and 
which it no doubt followed beneath the surface 
to the Rio Grande. The effect of a moderate 
sized and rapidly flowing stream terminating 
with absolute abruptness was, however, suffi- 
ciently striking. 

Tola is an insignificant hamlet, whose only 



1 86 OCEAN TO OCEAN- 

claim to distinction is that it was taken by 
Walker during his mad advance upon Rivas at 
the beginning of his career as a filibuster. It 
formed our base of supplies until the slaughter 
house collapsed and the butcher, rather than 
spend a day or two rebuilding it, retired from 
business. We then left the town to its historic 
past and transferred our patronage to Rivas. 

By the ninth of August our survey of the 
Tola Basin was nearly completed, and Mr. 
Harden and I decided to devote the next day 
to a trip to Brito and an attempt to secure 
some good photographs of the headland, while 
the transit party was finishing up its work. 
The morning dawned clear and bright, but the 
forest trail was muddy ; we therefore rode slowly, 
the sunlight struggling through the mass of foli- 
age above us and sparkling on the dark glossy 
leaves of the rubber plants which grew in great 
profusion around us. Our horses slipped and 
stumbled along, now bogging down in some 
nearly bottomless mud-hole, now clambering 
laboriously over the twisted roots of some pa- 
triarch of the forest, until at last, after what 
seemed an interminable ride, we emerged upon 
the bank of the Rio Grande at the La Flor ford. 
From this point the roads were good — for Ni- 
caragua — and across the broad potreros^ where 
herds of cattle were feeding half buried in tall 
grass, they were dry and hard. Entering the 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN 1 8/ 

woods again below the Brito hacienda, we fol- 
lowed a trail which led through tangled thickets 
and along the edge of a mangrove swamp to the 
mouth of the river, which broadens out just 
above Brito headland, and then contracts to a 
narrow opening through the bar of white sand 
at the base of the cliff. The sea was sparkling 
in the sunlight and breaking into foam on the 
rocks and along the sweep of beach to the 
southeast, and beyond the precipitous head- 
lands which mark the entrance to the San 
Juan del Sur the jagged Costa Rican moun- 
tains thrust themselves, a strip of hazy blue, 
between the sea and sky. Tying our horses, vve 
climbed about the rocks in search of vantage 
points, scaring an old pelican from his perch, 
and sending a thousand crabs scuttling in all 
directions. From a wet and slippery ledge 
against which the waves were churning them- 
selves into a mass of seething foam, we got a 
pretty good view of the headland, the best we 
could obtain without fording the river mouth, 
where the sharp triangular fins of several mon- 
ster sharks were visible. After taking several 
pictures and lunching in a shady grove a little 
way up the stream, I scaled the lower headland, 
which we had considered inaccessible when we 
made our survey, and of whose summit we 
knew little. 

The headland is precipitous and composed 



1 88 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

of partially disintegrated rock, much of it so 
loose that a very slight disturbance will bring 
down large masses upon the ledges below. At 
the point which we chose as most practicable 
for an ascent there had been a slide, perhaps 
caused by a recent earthquake, and a mass of 
crumbling detritus lay at such an angle that 
one might crawl up over it if no further slip 
should occur. All went well until I had got fifty 
or sixty feet from the bottom, when I found 
that everything I touched moved, and that only 
by exercising the greatest care could I avoid 
sliding to the ledges below, beneath a mass of 
debris. Somehow or other I reached the top 
and found a narrow knife-edge of rotten rock 
with a few tottering pinnacles, any of which I 
could have pushed over. The descent was even 
more difhcult than the ascent, but I finally 
alighted safe in the surf on the north side of 
the headland, and we returned to camp well 
satisfied with our day's work. 

The following day we moved to a place on 
the Rio Grande, about five hundred feet above 
the point where our line first crossed it, and 
near the hacieiida called El Carmen. It was a 
hard day's journey. The roads were bad be- 
yond description, necessitating frequent detours 
and an occasional doubling of teams, while 
the excessive heat exhausted the oxen and ren- 
dered frequent pauses imperative. A party of 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN 189 

mozos preceded the carretas and prepared a 
suitable clearing, enabling us to pitch our tents 
as soon as the teams arrived, late in the after- 
noon. We were upon the crest of a small 
wooded hill close to the river, beyond which 
lay rolling potreros clothed in verdure, and a 
large plantain grove. To the westward the 
rocky river-bed wound through wooded hills 
toward the Tola Basin ; to the eastward tangled 
thickets and swampy llanos extended to the 
continental divide. Heavy and frequent rains 
kept the country almost impassable, and often 
prevented the use of the river-bed as a road ; 
for the stream, which during the dry season had 
been a series of pools separated by bars of 
gravel through which the water seeped, became 
a turbid, rushing river, rising with incredible 
rapidity, sweeping masses of debris toward 
the sea, and subsiding again to an insignificant 
rivulet when an occasional clear day permit- 
ted it. 

Our inaccessible and isolated position ren- 
dered it difficult to obtain supplies, and one 
or two horsemen were constantly employed 
bringing provisions from Rivas, or scouring the 
surrounding country for chickens, eggs, and 
plantains. Owing to the insurrection and a 
subsequent misunderstanding with Costa Rica, 
which threatened to end in war, direct commu- 
nication with Greytown was interrupted during 



190 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

nearly the entire period of our survey, and of 
the nine months' supplies which we should 
have got from headquarters, only two months' 
allowances ever reached us. We were conse- 
quently obliged to subsist upon the country, 
and to keep men foraging for provisions nearly 
all the time. The mozos received beef twice 
a week when practicable, and a bountiful sup- 
ply of rice cooked in IdiVd, frijoles, and boiled 
green plantains. The " officers," as the Ameri- 
can members of the corps were called, had 
whatever was obtainable — chickens, ducks, 
eggs, rice, frijoles, ripe plantains, fruit, and a 
limited amount of canned food from the head- 
quarters stock. Wild honey of fine quality 
was abundant, limes could be had for the pick- 
ing, and the crushed red fruit of a variety of 
cactus mingled with water furnished a delicious 
cooling drink. With an occasional bit of game, 
or some crawfish from the river, we sometimes 
fared very well, as the following menu shows : 

Dinner, September g, 1898. 

Crawfish. 

Black bean soup. 

Canned salmon. 

Canned beef. 

Rice. Green corn. Boiled ripe plantains. 

Salad of eggs and alligator pears. 

Hard tack. Pickles, 

Tea, with milk or lemon juice. 

Cigars (literally two for a cent). 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN 191 

Of course we were not always so fortunate, 
and sometimes our meals were limited in quan- 
tity and lacking in variety. 

From the El Carmen camp we meandered the 
upper Rio Grande, Cascabel Creek, and Canas 
Gordas Creek, besides running a network of 
topographical lines. We also ran a line up 
Guarumo Creek and down Comalcagua Creek 
to its junction with the Rio Juan Davila, put- 
ting in enough of the adjacent topography to 
enable us to locate and compute a channel to 
divert the upper Rio Grande eastward into 
Lake Nicaragua, should it be thought advisable. 
Most of this work was far distant from camp, 
but the swampy condition of the country and 
the lack of good drinking water made it im- 
practicable to move to a more convenient loca- 
tion. A hard day's work, a walk of several 
miles through the mud, and a bath in the river 
was excellent preparation for a substantial sup- 
per, black native cigars, and a six-weeks-old 
paper, or long discussions as to the feasibility 
of establishing a remunerative cacao plantation 
with no capital and less experience. 

Visions of plantations flitted through the 
minds of several members of the corps, and 
endless inquiries were made as to the cost of 
land and labor. We found that a fair averag^e 
price for unimproved land bought in large 
tracts was two hundred pesos per cavalleria or 



192 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

seventy-one and four-tenths cents per acre, as- 
suming exchange at two and a half. Not a 
ruinous sum, but clearing and removing the 
small stumps, leaving the large ones to rot out, 
was estimated at forty dollars per acre, making 
the value of arable land considerable. The 
best grade of labor costs fifty cents per day, but 
it must be borne in mind that a Nicaraguan ac- 
complishes rather less than half as much as his 
northern contemporary, which brings the actual 
cost of work to about what it would be in the 
United States. The cultivation of cacao is 
probably the most profitable form of agriculture 
which a man of moderate means and limited 
experience can successfully undertake. Each 
native laborer, if employed upon piece work, 
takes care of about one thousand trees, yielding 
twelve hundred pounds annually, but the seven 
or eight years which elapse before the trees be- 
gin to bear render the possession of some capi- 
tal essential to success. Doubtless an enero^etic 
American farmer could accumulate money in 
Nicaragua, but the life involved is not to be 
recommended. 

On the twentieth of September we finished 
our survey, and two days later we broke camp 
and moved to Rivas. Defections and assign- 
ment to other duty had reduced the number of 
" officers " to three, and, as I had discharged 
many of the mozos, it was a small party which 



TOLA AND EL CARMEN 1 93 

struggled along the muddy trail and into Rivas. 
With mingled feelings of regret and satisfaction 
we bid adieu to the last of our dusky retainers, 
our days of labor ended and our work well 
done. 



13 



CHAPTER XI 

NARRATIVE — RIVAS TO GRANADA 

LIFE in Rivas was a pleasant change 
from the privations and monotony of 
the preceding nine months, and we were 
glad of the two days which elapsed before the 
sailing of the " Victoria," as it enabled us to 
stow and make an inventory of camp equip- 
ment to be left behind, and to pack such articles 
as we wished to take with us. The air was full 
of rumors of another insurrection, and our 
mozos were locked up in the cuartel as soon as 
we discharged them, a vigorous protest from us 
being necessary to procure their release. " Vol- 
unteers " were brought to town in large num- 
bers, sentries were posted everywhere, and the 
streets in the vicinity of the plaza became un- 
safe after nightfall, a bullet following a challenge 
so quickly as to disconcert any but a ready- 
tongued native. On Saturday afternoon sus- 
pected citizens were notified to report at the 
cuartel, where they were locked up over night, 
as a precautionary measure. 

Early Sunday morning we were astir, com- 
pleting our packing and preparing for departure. 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 195 



Soon after we had finished our coffee and rolls, 
the usual Central American substitute for break- 
fast, the whistle of the locomotive from the 
neighboring market place notified us that it 
was time to leave, and we set forth, accompanied 
by a small band of faithful mosos, who risked 
conscription to see us off. Climbing aboard 
the decayed remains of an American street car, 
among white-clad men and black-eyed, bare- 
footed women, we sat until, with a snort, a groan 
and a jerk, our remarkable train moved off. 
Rolling along through familiar scenes, never so 
attractive as when seen for the last time, we 
reached the lake shore and went aboard the 
" Victoria." The long wooden wharf was cov- 
ered with a surging crowd of travellers and 
friends, stevedores, and women selling dulces, 
fruit or carved jicaras, and the neighboring 
beach was lined with half-naked lavanderas, 
sousing clothes in the water, laying them upon 
logs or stones and beating them with clubs, the 
approved native method of washing. " El '93," 
which was following the "Victoria" about to 
prevent her capture by insurgents, lay between 
us and the shore, the gaudy uniforms of her 
crew contrasting sharply with the heterogen- 
eous costumes of the " volunteers," while a fleet 
of native sailing craft — clumsy schooners for 
the most part — swung at anchor near by. 
After the delay which travellers in Central 



196 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

America soon come to regard as inevitable, we 
cast off our moorings and headed for Ometepe, 
" El '93 " puffing sturdily along in our wake. 
The day was extremely hot, and the lake lay 
like a mill-pond around us, but as we gained 
headway a gentle breeze due to our own motion 
made it very comfortable where we sat beneath 
an awning on the hurricane deck. As the 
mainland faded to a narrow strip of green with 
purple hills beyond, the lofty, symmetrical cone 
of Ometepe loomed above us, its lower slopes 
clad in verdure and its peak of gray volcanic 
ash vanishing in clouds. It has been inactive 
since 1883, emitting only small quantities of 
steam and sulphurous vapor, but it retains its 
singularly perfect form, in sharp contrast to 
Madera, another peak on the same island, 
which, extinct for ages, has succumbed to dis- 
integrating influences and lost the characteristic 
volcanic shape. Running in as close to shore 
as the shoal water would permit, we lay to, our 
keel stirring up the mud beneath, while a large 
dugout transferred passengers and freight 
backwards and forwards between the steamer 
and the beach. 

The island of Ometepe contains many aborig- 
inal remains — large stone idols grotesquely 
carved, burial vases and bowls of pottery, 
small gold idols, copper implements and little 
stone amulets. Stone idols are common in 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 197 

many parts of Nicaragua, notably on Zapatero, 
a high irregular volcanic island which we passed 
in the course of the afternoon, midway between 
Ometepe and Granada. 

The tangled forests lying along the Carib- 
bean coast of Nicaragua are populated, as we 
have seen, by Indians of Carib stock, perhaps 
descendants of the inhabitants of the lost 
Atlantis, but they form a comparatively un- 
important element of the country's population, 
and may be dismissed without further notice. 
The Indians of the central and western districts 
are of entirely different origin, and probably 
came originally from Mexico, whence they 
brought many of the arts of civilization. 
Although now thoroughly amalgamated, they 
were formerly not all of the same stock, for 
Mexico was overrun by numerous tribes from 
the northward, each succumbing in turn to one 
more powerful, and breaking up into wandering 
bands destined to populate the fertile country 
to the southward. Thus successive migrations 
to Nicaragua were from different tribes which, 
while possibly of common descent, had been 
differentiating for centuries, and had acquired 
distinctive languages and characteristics. The 
Niquiranas, or Nicaraguans, who settled about 
Rivas and on the island of Ometepe, were 
presumably pure Aztecs, and were more ad- 
vanced in civilization than were their neigh- 



198 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

bors, of whose territory they had possessed 
themselves. 

It will readily be understood that the exist- 
ence of a large number of adjacent independent 
tribes governed by despotic caziques was pro- 
vocative of discord, and could not long con- 
tinue without procuring the aggrandisement of 
certain rulers and the relegation of others to 
subordinate positions, either as the result of 
military operations or of diplomacy and in- 
trigue. Such was the case: a feudal system- 
gradually developed, in which subsidiary chiefs, 
without relinquishing their power in local 
affairs, became the personal attendants and 
lieutenants of greater potentates. Local admin- 
istrations differed greatly, as the cazique, 
although influenced by certain time-honored 
customs, possessed absolute power. He was 
assisted by a council appointed for four months 
from among the old men, which in turn ap- 
pointed subordinate officers and which might 
even overrule the cazique; nevertheless, as the 
latter could at any time dissolve the council and 
indefinitely postpone re-convening it, he may 
be said to have had the whip-hand. A war- 
chief, whose authority in military affairs was 
unquestioned, was chosen by the warriors, but 
the cazique often accompanied the army and, 
in case the war-chief was slain, replaced him 
personally or by immediately appointing a 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 199 

successor. The object of the war was to cap- 
ture for sacrifice rather than to kill opponents ; 
and he who distinguished himself in battle was 
accorded the privilege of shaving the head, leav- 
ing only a scalp lock of specified dimensions. 

Certain districts were governed, not by 
caziques, but by councils of old men called 
Guegues, elected by the people. These assem- 
blages seem to have occupied a position some- 
what analogous to that of the caziques, for 
they administered civil affairs, but relegated 
military matters to war-chiefs appointed by 
themselves. These chiefs were ex officio mem- 
bers of the councils, and were closely watched 
by the Gztegzies to prevent an undue centraliza- 
tion of power in their hands. 

The houses typical of the country seem to 
have been rude cane huts thatched with grass 
or palm leaves, and entirely similar to those 
used by the poorer portion of the population to 
this day. They were frequently built around 
open squares, upon which the temples and 
public buildings faced, and hedged about with 
fruit trees. The squares served as public 
markets, and there upon certain days the pro- 
ducts of the country were exposed for sale. 
Cacao seeds served for money, and for some un- 
known reason men were excluded from the 
place, women and boys not yet pubescent doing 
all the trading. 



200 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Marriage was a civil rite performed by the 
cazique, who led the bride and groom into a 
small house provided for the purpose, where, 
after delivering himself of some good advice, 
he left them alone with a small fire. When 
the fire had burned out the ceremony was com- 
plete, and the couple went to live upon a piece 
of land provided by the parents. The hus- 
band, contrary to the present custom, did the 
greater part of the work, while the wife devoted 
herself to trading and light household duties. 
No one but the cazique was allowed more 
than one wife, but concubinage was not in- 
frequently practised, and upon the occasion 
of a certain annual festival indiscriminate li- 
centiousness was permitted. Marriages within 
families were not only tolerated, but encour- 
aged, as cementing the bonds of relationship. 
Bigamy, adultery, and rape were rather leni- 
ently dealt with, but sodomites and he who 
debauched the daughter of his master or cazique 
suffered death. Brothels were publicly kept, 
and the daughter of poor parents sometimes 
resorted to prostitution in order to accumulate 
a marriage portion, usually selecting one of her 
lovers as husband, when her object had been 
accomplished. 

• Murder under aggravated circumstances was 
punished by death, but the payment, to the 
relatives of the victim, of a number of slaves or 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 20I 

other articles of value usually sufficed to satisfy 
the demands of justice. 

The prevailing religion seems to have been 
essentially that of Mexico. Teotl, the supreme 
power, invisible, absolute, and all-pervading, was 
the chief of numerous gods and goddesses, in 
whose honor elaborate ceremonials were held 
and human sacrifices were offered. Each 
cazique maintained a number of persons for 
sacrifice, — prisoners of war, slaves, or voluntary 
victims, — allowing them to lead lives of luxury 
and ease until the fatal day, when, as they 
devoutly believed, the tribulations of this world 
were exchanged for everlasting happiness. 
The temples were usually large, low, timber 
buildings, thatched, with many dark inner 
chapels, and surrounded by courts, beyond 
which none but priests and caziques dared 
penetrate. Near by were pulpit-like mounds 
of unburned brick, each supporting a sacri- 
ficial stone, an oblong block as long as a man, 
with convex surface so arranged that when the 
victim was extended at length upon it, his 
breast was thrust forward. Upon the day of 
sacrifice the chief ascended one of these 
mounds, whence he could observe the cere- 
mony, and when the people had gathered 
around, the priest announced that an offering 
would be made to a certain deity. The victim 
was then laid upon the stone and held by 



202 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

several assistants while the priest with a sharp 
stone knife cut open his breast, tore out his 
heart, and with it anointed the mouth of the 
idol representing the god to whom honor 
was being done. But, despite the bloody- 
rites demanded by their religion, the Indians 
were not a cruel race ; indeed, compared with 
the so-called Christians who subsequently 
conquered them, they were peculiarly mild and 
amiable. 

Upon leaving Ometepe we headed north- 
ward, and by four o'clock were threading our 
way amidst a multitude of little islands of all 
sizes, embowered in green and separated by 
dim, cool channels arched with verdure, which 
marked the approach to Granada. A few 
minutes later we reached the long, wooden 
wharf and disembarked, paying a small tax for 
the privilege of landing and another for cross- 
ing the wharf. An assemblage of carriages 
that would have rejoiced an antiquarian's heart 
were waiting to convey passengers to the town, 
the principal part of which lies at some dis- 
tance from the shore, and, selecting the most 
substantial looking, we drove to Downing's 
hotel, stopping once that the coachman might 
pay to a mounted collector a per capita tax 
upon his passengers. The hotel stood upon a 
corner near the plaza, and was a substantial 
one-storied structure built around two courts, 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 203 

and containing great square bedrooms opening 
upon both street 2ind patio. 

A Q-ood sized office held a bar which must 
have been excellent, judging from the assidu- 
ous patronage bestowed upon it by both pro- 
prietor and guests, and outside was a spacious 
veranda, where one might sit and watch the 
passers-by. We were soon comfortably estab- 
lished, and passed eight pleasant days swinging 
in our hammocks, lounging on the veranda, 
and strolling about the streets. 

Nicaragua w^as first explored in 1522 by Gil 
Gonzales de Avila, who sailed from Panama 
and landed upon the shore of the Gulf of 
Nicoya, whence, pushing to the northward 
with a hundred men and four horses, he 
penetrated the territory of a powerful and 
hospitable cazique called Nicoya. In return 
for " fourteen thousand pieces of eight, in gold 
thirteen carats fine, and six idols of the same 
metal, each a span long," Gonzales gave him 
some trinkets and baptized him and his six 
thousand subjects. Fifty leagues to the north- 
ward, between the lake and the sea, about where 
Rivas now stands, were the domains of a 
mighty chief, Nicaragua. To him the Span- 
iards presently sent messages demanding that 
he acknowledge the sovereignty of the King 
of Spain and forthwith adopt the Christian 
religion, upon pain of immediate chastisement. 



204 



OCEAX TO OC£AJ\' 



The wily monz: : erumed a conciliatory 
answer and recri z De A\ila with much 
state, bestowing ,t quantities of gold and 
feather garmenti .: : ; : him, consenting to be 
bo^tized, with nine thousand of his subjects. 
^~i permitting the conversion of his temple 
: :: i Trristian church by the overthrow of 

.5 : 5 :- \i the erection of a cross. From 
T.t iz ::j :; this friendly chief Gonzales 
T : red the country in various directions, 
beiiig everywhere wdcomed by the natives, 
~? -rhom die horses, weapons and beards of 
::.z Spaniards were never foiling objects of 
T est- They do not sttn: to have distin- 
r letween horse and rider, but imagined 

2. : ' r^an a sort c :" t : = ar, large, power- 

: . T t'^ to be : Finally the in- 

;. - z : : tred a : : : ; t lazique called 
I 1 v: :::t iTi by five hundred un- 

:l: -7^ : . and a tew women, received his 
- r : :. resents of turkeys and gold, 

2.5 :: J ...zz Li 5 to csn5i\'er ihn proposition 
:^i: :~ '-:\i hir ;_:.::- i v- Etely become 
r : 'z.z'.z t : T hi tqpired he 

treacher: it . : t :: :;.r.:?:^ s with 

several :.; ;? ^ : " : : \\-..\:. armor, 



wooden s 

no mater. ; 

terrifying 

ever, GoiLza^cs ^as lorccd to 



., i=r:5 were 

i the strange, 

: r». How- 

-: ;:: :Ved 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 205 

by former friends as he traversed their do- 
mains ; but upon his return to Panama he 
gave such glowing reports c^ the country that 
Pedro de Arias, — or Pedrarias, — Governor of 
Panama, resolved to colonize it. He accord- 
ingly sent an expedition under Francisco 
Hernandez de Cordova, who in 1522 founded 
the cities of Granada and Leon, while Gon- 
zales was seeking in Spain the means to 
conquer and settle the lands which he had 
discovered. Upon the return of the latter he 
in^-aded Honduras, marched upon the towns 
established by Cordo\-a, and inaugurated a 
ci\'il war on a scale unprecedented in the 
struggles of early consanguineous explorers. 
Litde attention was paid to the mother coun- 
try, and its orders were more cr less openly 
ignored by successive governors, whose power 
was almost absolute. In due time the terri- 
tor\- comprising Nicaragua was organized as a 
pro\'ince of the captain-generalcy of Guate- 
mala, and it remained so until its emancipa- 
tion in 1S23. 

The fertility of the countr}-, as well as the 
cruelty of the Spanish conquerors to the 
natives, is dwelt upon by the pious Las Casas, 
Bishop of Chiapas. " It is impossible to ex- 
press properly the fertilit}- of the countr}-. the 
excellence of its air. and the almost infinite 
number of its inhabitants," says this chronicler. 



206 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

" One might see in this province cities four 
leagues in length, the great quantity of excel- 
lent fruit having drawn together this vast mul- 
titude of people. The towns were situated in 
broad plains, where there were no mountains 
in which the inhabitants could take refuge ; 
moreover, the climate was so mild and the 
country so agreeable that only with great re- 
luctance could they resolve to leave it, and 
they were consequently much exposed to the 
outrages and persecutions of the Spaniards ; 
but they submitted with the greatest patience, 
in order not to be obliged to leave their homes. 
These people are naturally mild and peaceful. 
The governor, or rather the tyrant, with the 
agents of his cruelty, decided to treat the in- 
habitants of this province as those of neigh- 
boring provinces had been used, and he 
committed such crimes, such atrocities, and 
such massacres as no pen is eloquent enough 
to describe. He sent into the province fifty 
horsemen, who slew nearly the entire popula- 
tion, sparing neither age, sex, nor condition. 
If the poor natives failed to bring them a cer- 
tain required quantity of grain, or neglected 
to furnish the requisite number of slaves, 
they were slaughtered without mercy. As 
the country is flat, it was impossible to avoid 
the attacks of cavalry or to escape the fury 
of the Spaniards. 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 20y 

*' The general permitted these brigands to 
commit all the crimes and robberies which 
they desired ; to take as many captives as they 
wished, loading them with chains which some- 
times weighed sixty or eighty pounds ; so that 
of four thousand persons, barely six survived, 
the others perishing upon the road, crushed 
under an excessive weight. To avoid the 
trouble of unlocking the chain from those 
who died of hunger, thirst, fatigue, or illness, 
the heads of the victims were stricken off. . . . 
There were drawn from this province dur- 
ing a few years over five hundred thousand 
slaves, all of whom had been born free, while 
those killed in battle numbered fifty or sixty 
thousand." ^ 

Thomas Gage, an English monk who trav- 
elled through Nicaragua in 1665, gives an in- 
teresting account of the country, which he calls 
" Mahomet's Paradise, from its exceeding good- 
ness." He describes Granada as a well-built, 
prosperous town, carrying on a large and 
profitable trade with the surrounding provinces, 
and deriving a considerable revenue from the 
frequent passage of immense mule trains laden 
with silver, sugar, indigo, cochineal, and hides. 
He asserts that while he was there " in one day 

1 Relation des Voyages et des Decouvertes que les Espagnols 
ont fait dans les Indes Occidentales. £crite par Dom B. de Las 
Casas, Eveque de Chiapa. Amsterdam, 1698. 



208 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

there entered six Reguas (which were each at 
least three hundred mules) from San Salvador 
and Honduras alone, laden with indigo, cochi- 
neal, and hides ; and two days after from Guate- 
mala came in three more, one laden wdth silver 
(which was the King's tribute), another with 
sugar, and the other with indigo." Ships occa- 
sionally sailed from Granada direct to Cartagena 
or Spain, probably at times of high water, when 
a small light-draught craft might pass the 
rapids of the Rio San Juan. 

Granada suffered much in its early days from 
the attacks of pirates. In i6S6 it was taken by 
French and English freebooters, who landed on 
the Pacific coast three hundred and fortv-five 
strong, and marched inland by night, intending 
to surprise the towTi. Their approach became 
known, however, and while a portion of the in- 
habitants fled by water, the remainderintrenched 
themselves, prepared to offer a desperate resist- 
ance. The onslaught of the pirates was fierce, 
and after a protracted struggle the garrison 
abandoned the works, and the city fell. But 
little boot}* was obtained, nor was the place, 
destitute of pro\asions and surrounded by foe- 
men, long tenable. After burning the town 
and falling back to the coast, the marauders 
re-embarked and continued their adventurous 
voyage, taking Realejo, Pueblo Viejo, and Chi- 
nandega. attacking Leon, and finally marching 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 209 

from the Gulf of Fonseca to Cape Gracias a 
Dios, a remarkable militar}'- achievement. 

Situated upon high land overlooking the lake, 
built on terraces communicating by steep, paved 
inclines, regularly laid out, and containing the 
homes of many people of wealth, Granada is 
probably the pleasantest town in Nicaragua 
in which to live. The houses are nearly all 
one-storied adobe structures, whitewashed, and 
roofed with semi-cylindrical red tiles. Win- 
dows are rare, but broad doors, which usually 
stand open during the daytime admit light and 
air, and frequently afford glimpses of distant 
patios bright with sunshine, fountains and flow- 
ers. The streets are dusty in dry weather, and 
muddy when it rains, and the sidewalks, which 
are only three or four feet wide, are of different 
elevations for different houses, communicating 
by flights of steps, which make walking rather 
fatiguing. 

There is a good sized plaza shaded by palms 
and bread-fruit trees, where an excellent mili- 
tary band used to play several times a week ; 
but some time ago a soldier, smoking a cigar- 
ette in the magazine of the barracks, caused an 
explosion which blew the band into eternity 
and abruptly terminated the concerts. The 
place contains several interesting churches, a 
large market, a theatre which is rarely used, two 
excellent saloons — called " Chicago" and " New 

14 



2IO OCEAN TO OCEAN 

York " respectively — a cockpit and no doubt 
various other attractions which we in our short 
stay failed to discover. The population is esti- 
mated at fifteen thousand, or nearly twice that 
of Rivas. South of the town the rugged crest 
of the extinct volcano Mombacho rises black 
and massive against the sky, its sides covered 
with rich plantations and coffee Jincas nearly 
to the summit. 

An opportune fiesta enabled us to witness a 
procession different in character from any that 
we had hitherto seen. Distant bursts of half 
barbaric music apprised us of its coming, and 
we hastened to the door just as it turned into 
the street upon which the hotel stood. A brass 
band led the way, followed by surpliced prelates, 
priests, and acolytes bearing crosses and banners, 
while bringing up the rear was a crowd of fantas- 
tically clad maskers, whirling and posing in the 
mazes of an intricate dance, the blare of trum- 
pets, banging of bombas^ and shouts of an eager 
and excited populace furnishing a strange ac- 
companiment to exercises presumably devo- 
tional in character. 

Sunday afternoon we went to a cockfight, held 
in the patio of an inn, and attended by a large 
number of the sporting fraternity. The fight- 
ing was very uninteresting, but not so brutal as 
I had expected, the cocks being equipped with 
sharp steel spurs, which usually insured instant 



RIVAS TO GRANADA 211 

death to the bird struck, and made the longest 
fight a matter of a few seconds only. The crowd, 
however, was decidedly interesting, and seemed 
composed of all classes of society. Govern- 
ment officials, with roosters under their arms 
and their hands full of paper money, rubbed 
elbows with barefooted mozos staking their 
last centavos upon a favorite bird, while white- 
haired patriarchs and cigarette-inhaling strip- 
lings leaned side by side over the board 
inclosure, watching with bated breath the 
progress of the fight. 




CHAPTER XII 

EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 

HEN the mail-clad Spaniard, a sword 
in one hand and the symbol of an 
intolerant, mediseval Christianity in 
the other, descended upon the helpless aborig- 
ines of Central America, he came, not as a 
humble settler, to wrest an honest living from 
the land of his adoption, but as a ruthless con- 
queror, to pillage and destroy, to slay or sub- 
jugate the rightful owners of the soil. The 
history of the early invasions is a tale of 
horrors, from which the reader turns away 
aghast, and which not even the boundless 
courage, vast ambitions and ultimate triumphs 
of brilliant leaders can palliate. Rich prov- 
inces of great extent fell before mere handfuls 
of determined men, whom the Spanish crown 
rewarded with titles, grants of land, and powers 
almost absolute over the vanquished inhabit- 
ants. The natives, held in slavery worse than 
death, tilled the fields of their oppressors, who, 
increasing in wealth and power, formed an 
arrogant and idle aristocracy, for whom and by 
whom the country was governed. The politi- 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 213 

cal and social distinctions of the Old World 
were mirrored in the New, and the Viceregal 
court became a centre from which millions of 
men, unrepresented and unconsidered, except 
as instruments for the aggrandizement of their 
masters, were governed. 

The French Revolution, following upon our 
own attainment of national independence, 
shook the thrones of Europe and echoed 
faintly among the smouldering peaks and 
tangled forests of the captain-generalcy of 
Guatemala. The oppressed children of the 
Aztecs, the wandering scions of Castile, caught 
the sound, and hope, so long a stranger to 
their breasts, sprang up anew. The downfall 
of Spain, her relegation to a subordinate place 
among the nations of Europe, tightened for a 
time the ties which bound her absent children to 
her ; but wuth the restoration and the introduc- 
tion of needed reforms in the mother country 
came a feeling of discontent that such reforms 
were not for them, and there arose a cry for 
independence. The aristocratic portion of the 
population, fearing for its privileges, but power- 
less to stem the tide of popular demand, bent all 
its energies to perpetuating as an independent 
monarchy the oligarchy which had in fact ruled 
the country for many years. Thus there were 
few to oppose secession when, on the 15th of 
September, 1821, the representatives of the 



214 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

people met in the cit}' of Guatemala and pro- 
claimed the independence of the countr}\ 
Conscious of her own weakness, betrayed bv 
those whom she had trusted, Spain made little 
effort to coerce her rebellious subjects, and the 
change was bloodless and complete. But 
scarcely had the separation been accomplished, 
when a Constituent Assembly was convoked 
to organize the countr}^ as a Republic. The 
aristocrats, or Ser\dles, as they were called, saw 
their \dsions of ascendancy fade. Fearing the 
loss not only of prospective power but of 
material prosperity as well, and encouraged by 
the establishment of a monarchy in the neigh- 
boring State of Mexico, they resolved to sacri- 
fice their lately-acquired independence, and 
achieve by treachery and force the incorpora- 
tion of Central America in the empire of 
Iturbide. 

The Constituent Assembly met in Guate- 
mala Cit}^ but its deliberations were forcibly 
suspended by bands of armed Serviles, who 
assassinated or imprisoned the Liberal leaders, 
assumed control of the convention, and fraudu- 
lently imposed upon the astonished people a 
resolution declaring the annexation of the 
countr}^ to the Mexican Empire. No sooner 
had the news of this outrage spread through 
the sparsely populated country districts than 
it was met by a general uprising. Granada, 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 21 5 

San Jose, Leon rebelled. The Republicans of 
San Salvador took the field, defeated the 
Servile army sent against them, and submitted, 
only after a long and bloody resistance, to an 
overwhelming force of Serviles and Mexican 
troops. But though beaten in the field they 
never acknowledged the authority of the in- 
vaders. Their Provisional Congress, driven 
from place to place, continued to exist. One of 
its acts was to decree the annexation of San 
Salvador to the United States. No action 
was taken upon this proposition by the Ameri- 
can Government; nor was any necessary, for 
like thunder from a clear sky came the news of 
the downfall of Iturbide and the dissolution of 
his empire. Deprived of external aid and 
hopelessly outnumbered, the Serviles suc- 
cumbed to the inevitable, resigning the reins 
of government to the triumphant Liberals. 
Chiapas was incorporated in Mexico; the re- 
maining States, Nicaragua, Guatemala, San 
Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica, convoked 
a Constituent Assembly, adopted the Constitu- 
tion of 1824, and formed a confederation called 
" The Republic of Central America." Titles 
and privileges of rank were abolished, the sale 
of Papal bulls was prohibited, obstacles to em- 
igration were removed, security to foreigners 
and their property was conceded and slavery ab- 
solutely and forever abolished. The liberty of 



2l6 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the press, the habeas corpus and the representa- 
tive principle were guaranteed, despite bitter 
opposition from the Servile faction; and, had 
the people been prepared for it, a just and stable 
government would have been inaugurated. 

But ignorance and bigotry are deadly foes 
to progress. The Bishop of Leon, aided by 
rich Serviles and blind adherents of the 
Church, had vigorously opposed the creation 
of a Republic, and had incurred the enmity of 
the predominating Liberal element both in his 
own city and in neighboring towns. Listigated 
by him or by his rash advisers, the monarchical 
faction made demands which, being granted, 
led to others provocative of domestic discord, 
and plunged the city into civil war. For 
one hundred and fourteen days the struggle 
raged fiercely, father fighting against son, 
brother against brother. The city was re- 
duced to ruins: a thousand buildings were 
consumed by fire in a single night ; yet still 
the conflict ragj^d, and only the entrance of 
General Arce with a detachment of Federal 
troops restored a troubled peace. 

The Church had early arrayed herself with 
the Servile party, and had proved herself a most 
efficient ally. Her wealth and homogeneous- 
ness, the possession of far-reaching and easily 
manipulated ecclesiastical machinery, and the 
superstitious awe with which she was regarded 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 21 y 

by the more ignorant class of Liberals and 
Serviles alike, enabled her to wield an influ- 
ence the importance of which can hardly be 
over-estimated. A perception of the danger 
arising from clerical ascendancy and a convic- 
tion of the inexpediency of attempting to com- 
bat it except by the slow but effective method 
of popular education, led the Liberal leaders, 
who were for the most part intelligent and 
patriotic men, to establish schools for the in- 
struction of the people. The facilities for 
acquiring knowledge thus afforded were eagerly 
seized by the illiterate poor, whose evident de- 
sire for self-improvement seemed to augur well 
for the stability and strength of the infant Re- 
public. But in San Salvador, sturdy pioneer 
of Liberalism, this slow method of combating 
the power of the Church met with little favor. 
An assumption of disputed power by the reac- 
tionary Archbishop of Guatemala evoked a de- 
claration of the right of the people to choose 
their spiritual as well as their temporal leaders, 
and led to the election of a Liberal priest. Dr. 
Delegado, as Bishop of the State. The Arch- 
bishop, of course, protested, and the Pope him- 
self demanded the revocation of the act under 
pain of excommunication ; but to no avail, and 
Costa Rica subsequently followed the example 
of San Salvador. Whatever may be thought 
of the ethics of this step, it was certainly in- 



2l8 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

expedient and, by outraging the prejudices of 
a portion of the population, strengthened the 
position of the Church and prolonged the 
struggle between bigotry and political and re- 
ligious tolerance. 

For two years after the inception of the Re- 
public a truly wise and liberal government 
prevailed. With the exception of the disturb- 
ance in Leon (which was an expression of local 
discontent rather than a movement of national 
significance), and an abortive attempt to restore 
the power of Spain in Costa Rica, no open 
attack was made upon the existing order of 
things. But the Servile leaders, although ap- 
parently reconciled to the Republic, sowed seeds 
of discord broadcast through the land, seeking 
to achieve by intrigue and bribery that which 
their numerical inferiority forbade their attain- 
ing by force. Accomplished plotters, possessed 
of ample wealth and the social position with 
which to flatter and to dazzle their intended 
victims, they were a constant menace to the 
stability of the Government. Certain defects 
in the Constitution — notably a lack of preci- 
sion in defining: the relation of constituent 
States to the Federal Government — helped to 
introduce discord into the Liberal ranks and to 
prepare the way for reactionary projects. The 
first acquisition of Servile diplomacy was Gen- 
eral Arce, President of the Republic, who, 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 219 

pretending to have information that the au- 
thorities of Guatemala were plotting against 
the Federal Government, arrested Jose Fran- 
cisco Barrundia, Governor of the State, on the 
6th of September, 1826, threw him into prison, 
and disarmed the local militia. The Lieuten- 
ant-Governor, Cerilio Flores, was assassinated 
by Indians at the instigation of their spiritual 
adviser, an eloquent friar, and inferior members 
of the State Government were murdered, im- 
prisoned, or forced to flee the country. The 
Liberals, taken by surprise, were unable to 
offer any effective resistance. A number un- 
der Col. Pierson punished the murderers of 
Flores, but fell in turn before troops sent 
against them by the treacherous Arce. A new 
State Government was organized with Mariano 
Aycinena as chief, and political espionage and 
proscription were resorted to, to prevent the 
rehabilitation of Liberalism. To express opin- 
ions inimical to the Servile interests was to 
court destruction, and terrorism ruled the land. 
Encouraged by reactionary successes, Arce 
convoked the General Congress, with the 
avowed object of annulling the constitution and 
establishing a dictatorship, but the excitement 
was such that no meeting took place. Mean- 
while, emboldened by the downfall of Repub- 
licanism in Guatemala, the Serviles of Nicara- 
gua and Honduras arose in arms and involved 



220 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

their States in civil war. San Salvador, loyal 
to the deposed Barrundia, repudiated the au- 
thority of Arce and marched troops against his 
adherents in Guatemala. Met by superior 
force, they were repulsed and obliged to assume 
the defensive, but when attacked in turn they 
inflicted a signal defeat upon their enemies. 
The Liberals of Nicaragua, Honduras, and San 
Salvador now joined forces against the sub- 
verters of the Republic, and bitter civil war 
was waged, in which Costa Rica, remote from 
the scene of hostilities and insignificant in 
power, remained a passive but interested spec- 
tator. On the 2Sth of September, 1827, the 
battle of Sabina Grande was fought, resulting 
in the defeat of the Republican allies; but 
this defeat was speedily follow^ed by the utter 
rout of the victors by troops from Nicaragua 
and San Salvador. The affair is chiefly mem- 
orable for bringing into prominence a man 
destined to be hailed by the Liberals as the 
saviour of his countrv — Francisco Morazan. 

Morazan, sometimes called the " Washington 
of Central America," was born in Honduras in 
1799. Although without educational advan- 
tages other than those enjoyed by his compa- 
triots, he evinced an unusual quickness of 
comprehension and personal qualities calcu- 
lated to make him a leader of men. He 
rapidly rose to be Governor of his native State, 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 221 

but, endowed by nature with martial talents, 
and perceiving that civil advancement depended 
upon military success, he took the field and led 
the Liberal troops in the battle to which we 
have referred. A series of desperate contests 
followed, in which neither side gained a decided 
advantage, and which were marked by all the 
atrocities incident to Central American warfare. 
On the 1 7th of December a battle was fought 
at Santa Ana, in San Salvador, which resulted 
in the occupation of the town by Servile forces. 
Although accomplished by gross treachery, this 
achievement encouraged the reactionary ele- 
ment and emboldened them to attempt a syste- 
matic invasion of San Salvador. The opposing 
armies met near the city of that name, and the 
Liberals, greatly inferior in numbers, were de- 
feated and cruelly massacred. The town suc- 
cessfully sustained a siege ; but outlying hamlets 
fell, until it seemed as if the Servdle triumph 
were complete. Driven to desperation, the 
State Government agreed that the capital 
should be occupied by troops of the invaders 
and that Arce should convoke a partisan Con- 
gress to give an appearance of legaHty to his 
decrees. But the people of the city of San Sal- 
vador, outraged by this surrender, imprisoned 
the alien garrison, replaced the Government by 
one more acceptable to themselves, and renewed 
the struggle. In this they were aided by Mora- 



222 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

zan, who, having restored the Liberals to power 
in Honduras, marched upon the invaders, de- 
feated them, and in two months drove them from 
the State. Arce had been with the Servile army, 
but he now fled to Guatemala and thence — the 
Vice-President refusing to resign his borrowed 
authority — to Mexico. From San Salvador, 
Morazan advanced upon Guatemala, where the 
Serviles, exhausted, discouraged and harassed 
by their Republican compatriots, were tottering 
upon the verge of destruction. Several actions 
were fought, generally resulting in Liberal suc- 
cesses ; and when, on the 15th of March, 1829, 
Morazan appeared before Guatemala City and 
demanded its surrender, the Serviles attempted, 
by offering liberal concessions, to effect a com- 
promise or to gain sufficient time to prepare for 
further resistance. Convinced of their insin- 
cerity, Morazan abruptly terminated the nego- 
tiations, and gallantly carried the city at the 
point of the bayonet. 

The Liberal party was now completely in the 
ascendant. The Federal Congress, dissolved 
in 1826, was reassembled, and proceeded to 
elect Jose Francisco Barrundia as President. 
All law^s enacted during Arce's usurpation of 
power were abrogated, deposed officials were 
restored to office, and a just and enlightened 
government of the people succeeded to a harsh 
and retrogressive military despotism. The 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 223 

press, which under the Servile administration 
had been subjected to a rigid censorship, was 
restored to freedom ; religious tolerance and 
equal protection to all sects was proclaimed ; 
the right of suffrage was conferred upon all 
adult males, irrespective of color or condition, 
and the principle of presumptive innocence and 
the right of trial by jury were recognized. In 
deference to popular demand, proceedings — 
which were never pushed to a conclusion — 
were instituted against the murderers of Flores, 
and decrees of banishment against the leaders 
of the recent insurrection were passed; the 
great body of Serviles, however, was treated 
with a leniency and kindliness which should 
have evoked gratitude, but which only seems to 
have encouraged further acts of treachery. A 
decisive blow was struck at the Church, who, 
her interests jeopardized by the prospective 
spread of liberal ideas and popular education, 
had not ceased to plot against the Republic and 
to endeavor to accomplish, by fair means or 
foul, a return to the oligarchical government 
under which she felt her material prosperity to 
be secure. Realizing the inherent incompati- 
bility of progressive institutions and an anti- 
quated ecclesiasticism, and fearing the influence 
of the clergy over the illiterate and superstitious 
masses, Morazan on the nth of July, seized the 
archbishop and the heads of the monkish orders, 



224 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

sent them under militar}^ guard to the port of 
Isabal, and shipped them abroad. Convents 
were abolished, their property was confiscated 
and appHed to educational or other public 
uses, women were forbidden to take the veil, 
and in 1832 the laws recognizing Roman 
Catholicism as the faith of the country were 
abrogated and complete religious tolerance was 
reafiErmed. 

On the first of April, 1829, Costa Rica, 
anxious to avoid participation in a quarrel the 
outcome of which she could not materially affect, 
announced her withdrawal from the Confedera- 
tion ; but upon the re-establishment of the Re- 
public, in January, 1831, she resumed her 
former position as one of the constituent States. 
Thus was established a precedent which subse- 
quently exercised a disastrous influence upon 
the permanency of the coalition. 

Prominent among the benefits expected to 
accrue from the separation from Spain and the 
establishment of self-s:overnment was relief 
from excessive and unjust taxation. Starting 
unembarrassed, well and honestly administered, 
the Republic would have found her revenues 
sufficient had not the Ser\iles, intent upon 
regaining their lost ascendancy, brought civil 
war upon the country and paralyzed her re- 
sources. The Liberal party, emerging triumph- 
ant from a fiery ordeal, found itself facing the 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 225 

problem of reorganization with depleted ex- 
chequer, large debts and an inadequate revenue. 
The natural expedient, increased taxation, met 
with universal opposition from the ignorant, 
who, unable to comprehend the exigencies of 
the situation, blamed the Government, and be- 
came discontented if not rebellious citizens. 
Public improvements stopped for lack of funds ; 
public schools declined and died away ; and 
the attention of the Federal officials was dis- 
tracted from questions of national develop- 
ment by the necessity of devising means to 
maintain the national credit. Loans were 
procured from England at ruinous rates of 
interest, and thus a pretext was afforded for 
subsequent interference by Great Britain in 
Central American affairs. 

For two years following the restoration of the 
Republic peace reigned, and the country, in 
spite of factional discontent and consequent 
administrative friction, made rapid strides to- 
ward prosperity. Industries which had been 
suspended or neglected during the period of 
turmoil were resumed, two new universities 
were founded, and diplomatic relations were 
established with the United States. An at- 
tempt to negotiate a treaty with England was 
made, but an insuperable obstacle was en- 
countered in the unauthorized and unjustifiable 
retention by that country of a large tract of 

IS 



226 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

territory around Belize. An old treaty with 
Spain permitting English subjects to cut ma- 
hogany within certain limits but expressly 
forbidding any permanent settlement or the 
assumption of sovereign rights by Great Britain, 
was made the pretext for this usurpation, which, 
from motives of policy, was acquiesced in by 
the Serviles during their brief period of ascen- 
dancy. Now, however, when England pro- 
posed a treaty of amity and commerce, the 
Government, by Morazan's advice, assented, 
but stipulated that both the territorial limits 
and the time within which the old treaty should 
be deemed operative should be clearly defined. 
Of course the negotiations resulted in nothing 
and served only to inflame the minds of British 
agents against Morazan and the party with 
which he was affiliated. As a practical illus- 
tration of their contempt for a nation whose 
only claim to consideration lay in the posses- 
sion of a just cause, they seized the island of 
Ruatan, belonging to Honduras, and expelled 
the local authorities. This high-handed pro- 
ceeding was disowned by the British Cabinet as 
unjustifiable, yet it was repeated in 1841 ; and 
in August, 185 1, Captain Jolly, of the Royal 
Navy, solemnly annexed the island to the 
colony of Belize, an act officially confirmed the 
following year on the ground of former occu- 
pancy, although in direct defiance of the pro- 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 22/ 

visions of the Claytoii-Bulwer treaty of 1850 as 
understood by the United States.^ 

During this period the Serviles were busily 
engaged in plotting against the Government, 
and at the end of 1831 their opposition assumed 
an active form. The former President, Arce, 
who had been driven from the country, invaded 
Guatemala from Mexico, while Dominguez, a 
Servile who had accepted military command 
under the Liberal administration, and Ramon 
Guzman, governor of the Castle of Omoa, in- 
cited an insurrection in Honduras. These 
disturbances were so easily quelled that the 
Liberal leaders became imbued with a contempt 
for their adversaries and developed a sense of 
security calculated to loosen the bonds of 
union and to pave the way for internal discord. 
As has been said, the Federal Constitution was 
deficient in explicitness, and afforded room for 
honest doubt regarding the extent to which 
Federal interference in State affairs was per- 
missible. San Salvador, jealous of Guatemala, 
whom she believed unduly favored by the 
Executive, announced her adherence to the 

1 The existence of a note from Mr. Clayton to Sir Henry 
Bulwer acknowledging that "British Honduras was not em- 
braced in the treaty " but declining either " to affirm or deny 
the British title to their settlement or its alleged dependencies " 
was unknown to the Senate for about two years after it was 
written, yet it seems to have furnished England's excuse for 
violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the treaty. 



228 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

doctrine of States' rights, by withdrawing from 
the confederation. Had she been allowed 
time for reflection she would probably have 
realized the weakness of her position and 
voluntarily returned to her allegiance ; but 
effective measures of coercion were adopted 
and for the first time the Liberal party was as 
a house divided against itself. Morazan, who 
had been elected President, now assumed the 
executive power in the vanquished State and 
filled the administrative offices, an unjustifiable 
and impolitic proceeding, which antagonized 
all advocates of States' riohts and threatened 
to disrupt the country. Honduras, Nicaragua, 
and Costa Rica declared their independence ; 
San Salvador, encouraged by their example^ 
did likewise ; and only by abandoning its posi- 
tion and conceding the dangerous doctrine of the 
right of secession, was the General Government 
able to effect a reconciliation and reunion. 

A period of unrest ensued. The rural clergy, 
antagonized by the abolition of tithes and 
the legalizing of civil marriages, incited the 
Indians to revolt, and a widespread plot against 
the foreign element culminated on the 24th 
of July, 1832, in the proclamation of an Indian 
government and an indiscriminate attack upon 
all those of alien race. The outbreak was 
readily checked, the leader shot, and the priests 
punished by the suppression of a large number 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 229 

of Church holidays. In 1834 occurred a clash 
between State and Federal authorities in San 
Salvador, and Nicaragua was disturbed by 
civil strife. The following year Costa Rica 
became involved in domestic troubles, caused 
by local jealousies and encouraged by the 
ubiquitous clergy. These petty discords are 
important only as evidences of the disturbed 
condition of the country, which was indeed 
upon the verge of anarchy. 

In 1835 the Federal Congress, which had 
removed to San Salvador, promulgated a new 
constitution based upon that of 1824; but not- 
withstanding its excellence the conflicting in- 
terests of the constituent States, no one of which 
was willing to concede anything, made its rati- 
fication impossible of accomplishment. The 
cloud of popular ignorance which brooded 
over the land, and which had been only par- 
tially dispelled by the efforts of enlightened 
Liberal leaders, was a constant menace to free 
institutions. Influenced more by sentiment 
than judgment, unaccustomed to consider the 
will of the majority decisive unless sustained 
by force, and unwilling to sacrifice immediate 
personal benefit for the ultimate good of the 
community, the people were in truth unfit for self- 
government. Equitable taxation was deemed 
extortion, trial by jury was thought an un- 
warrantable imposition upon the members of 



230 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the panel, and the substitution of suitable 
prisons for gruesome dungeons was regarded 
as an expensive and needless form of public 
philanthropy. A shocking manifestation of 
the danger of ignorance occurred upon the first 
appearance of cholera, which spread through 
the country with marvellous rapidity and struck 
terror to the hearts of all. The Government, 
ever ready in times of emergency, took active 
measures to stay the plague. " Not only all the 
medical staff of Guatemala, but most of the 
young students, were furnished with medicines 
and sent to those places where it was thought 
their presence was most urgently required. 
The poor Indians, who were dying in great 
numbers, are generally panic-stricken when 
the least epidemic prevails. Their terror was 
now excessive. The priests, who had before 
learned to improve even such opportunities, 
were ready to foment their fears, and to awaken 
their resentment against the Liberals, by insin- 
uating that they had poisoned the waters with 
a view to destroy the Indians, intending to re- 
people the country with foreigners; and as a 
proof of this they pointed to the colony just 
established in Vera Paz. The too credulous 
aborigines, who had so lately been excited 
against some of the reforms, and especially that 
of trial by jury, needed no more to rouse them 
to rebellion. Their cry vv^as now directed 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 23 1 

against the poisoners and the foreign residents. 
Many of the doctors had to effect their escape 
as best they could. Some were seized and 
killed, being forced to swallow the whole con- 
tents of their medicine chests, or water was 
poured down their throats till they died ; and 
the results were considered conclusive evidence 
of their guilt." 

The insurrection became general wherever 
the aborigines predominated, and in other 
parts of the country tumults arose. An at- 
tempt to disperse a riotous assembly at Santa 
Rosa, on the ninth of June, 1837, resulted in 
the defeat of the troops and the elevation of 
the leader of the mob, Rafael Carrera, to a 
position of national importance. Born amid 
squalid surroundings, ilHterate, superstitious, 
unscrupulous and cruel, Carrera was a fit 
leader for the fanatical element which he 
represented. The first engagement after the 
affair of Santa Rosa resulted in the defeat 
of the insurgents; but the troops, exasperated 
by the stubborn resistance offered, were guilty 
of excesses, which intensified the hatred of the 
Indians and made reconciliation impossible. 
Guerilla warfare raged, and the country was 
soon in a state of anarchy. In Guatemala, 
considerations of public safety induced the 
Liberals to attempt a union of political 
parties and the establishment of a neutral 



232 • OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Government ; but as a result of Servile mach- 
inations the new administration displayed 
reactionary tendencies so marked as to cause 
general dissatisfaction, which culminated in 
insurrection. In this crisis both factions 
turned to Carrera, who marched upon Gua- 
temala City, captured it, and assumed control 
of the government. But the Indian soldiery 
could not be restrained. A brief reign of 
terror was followed by a popular uprising, 
the expulsion of the invaders, and a breach 
between Carrera and the Liberal party, which 
time was powerless to heal. The Serviles, 
aided by savage hordes of aborigines, achieved 
complete supremacy, and the advocates of lib- 
erty were driven into exile. 

Up to this time the Federal Government, 
conceding the right of States to regulate their 
own internal affairs, had not interfered in the 
Guatemalan insurrection ; but the complete de- 
struction of the legitimate State Government 
and the substitution of one based upon force 
was now thought to justify and to demand 
Federal intervention. Morazan accordingly 
took the field and, after an indecisive cam- 
paign, advanced upon the city of Guatemala. 
The people, encouraged by his approach, de- 
manded and obtained the resignation of the 
Servile authorities ; and these, realizing their in- 
ability to stand before the troops of the Repub- 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 233 

lie, retired with affected willingness. A new 
election resulted in the re-establishment of a 
Liberal government, a proclamation of general 
amnesty, and the negotiation of a nominal 
peace with the insurgents. But hardly had the 
Federal forces left Guatemala before Carrera 
with his Indians returned to the attack, won 
two unimportant actions, reached the city so 
soon after the news of his approach that no 
resistance was practicable, and inaugurated 
an era of such violence as has never been 
exceeded even in the bloody annals of Central 
American warfare. " Who can describe the 
agony of Guatemala beneath the fury of the 
savage, and the oppression of his hordes ? It 
is fearful to recall the continued assaults on 
the houses, within which, through doors and 
windows, the roving soldiery wantonly dis- 
charged their arms, killing and wounding 
the unresisting occupants, without regard to 
age or sex. Insult and assassination were com- 
mon in the public streets, in the broad light 
of day. What then were the horrors of the 
night, when the doleful songs of the savages, 
mingled with drunken shouts, the shrieks of 
violated women, and the groans of husbands, 
fathers, and brothers, slaughtered in vain at- 
tempts at resistance, all combined to appall 
the souls of men ? All this time, however, 
the Serviles enjoyed immunity, beneath the 



234 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

shadow of the monster. He received the hom- 
age of the noblesse; incense was offered to 
him in the temples, and in the great cathe- 
dral he was impiously proclaimed as an angel 
sent of God! "^ 

In the midst of this triumph General Salazar 
attacked a large body of insurgents returning 
from the sack of a neighboring town, killed 
five hundred, and so alarmed Carrera that 
he abandoned the city and incontinently fled. 
Had he been promptly pursued, the insurrec- 
tion might have received its death-blow ; but a 
little time sufficed to restore his self-confidence, 
and he set off upon a predatory expedition 
into San Salvador, capturing Santa Ana and 
Aquachahan and retreating to Guatemala, 
where he was again met and defeated. A 
series of unsuccessful encounters which ensued 
so discouraged the insurgents that their leader 
felt the necessity of yielding, not, however, 
without making terms favorable to himself. 
He became commander of Mita, and, by main- 
taining a large military force, retained his posi- 
tion as a power in the State. 

The unsettled condition of the country, the 
ease with which revolts were incited and 
sustained, demonstrated the weakness of the 
Government and brought contempt upon it. 
Contemplation of the chaotic state of the Re- 

1 Don Jose Barrundia. 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 235 

public so discouraged the members of the Fed- 
eral Congress of 1838 that, admitting their 
inability to harmonize conflicting interests, they 
delegated to the constituent States many of the 
powers previously vested in the General Govern- 
ment, and adjourned, never to meet again. The 
result was a virtual dissolution of the Confedera- 
tion, for although efforts were made to maintain 
it, the selfishness of individual States formed an 
obstacle which no exercise of diplomacy could 
overcome. Nicaragua and Honduras declared 
themselves independent republics ; Costa Rica 
submitted to the wise but despotic government 
of a self-appointed chief, Carillo ; and at the 
end of the year San Salvador, Guatemala, and 
a new State, Los Altos, alone adhered to the 
decaying Federation. Morazan, in despair at 
the utter downfall of a political structure to 
the rearing of which his life had been devoted, 
unwilling to concede the right of secession, 
and realizing that he, as President, was the sole 
remaining representative of Federal union, de- 
clared his intention of retaining the supreme 
power and of compelling the allegiance of dis- 
loyal States. His policy led to collisions with 
Nicaragua and Honduras, and an indecisive 
war was waged. The Serviles of Guatemala, 
deeming the time propitious, made overtures to 
Carrera, who, at the head of five thousand men, 
marched upon the city, took it, and assumed 



236 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the governmental functions. Another reign of 
terror followed. Liberal laws were abolished, 
adherents of the Republic were put to death 
without the form of trial, and finally the with- 
drawal of the State from the Confederation was 
decreed. An insurrection in Los Altos, inau- 
gurated by priests and encouraged by Carrera, 
resulted in the overthrow and murder of the 
Liberal authorities and the reincorporation of 
that State in the Dictatorship of Guatemala. 

San Salvador was now the sole exponent of 
Republican principles ; but Morazan, undaunted 
by reverses and relying upon his personal popu- 
larity, raised a force of twelve hundred men, 
advanced upon Guatemala City, entered it on 
the eighteenth of March, 1840, and made a des- 
perate but unsuccessful fight for supremacy. 
Surrounded by an overwhelming force of ene- 
mies from whom no mercy could be expected, he 
gallantly cut his way out, losing more than half 
his men, and retreated to San Salvador. But 
his absence from the capital had allowed the 
disaffected to plot against him, and, unable to 
disguise the fact that all was lost, he fled with 
a few faithful friends from the land to which, 
with rare patriotism, he had devoted the best 
years of his life. 

To follow in detail the history of the next 
few years would be an unprofitable expenditure 
of time. It is a discouraging tale of violence 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 237 

and crime; of an enlightened minority strug- 
gling against ignorance and prejudice; of jus- 
tice outraged and might triumphant. Carrera 
ruled in Guatemala by force ; Costa Rica, pros- 
perous from natural causes, submitted without 
a murmur to the salutary dictatorship of Carillo ; 
while Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Honduras 
directed their affairs as best they could. En- 
couraged by an ineffectual attempt to re-estab- 
lish the Federal Republic, and relying upon a 
widespread dissatisfaction with Carrera's des- 
potic government, Morazan returned to San 
Salvador at the head of a few devoted followers 
in 1842. Finding the country unprepared for 
his projects, he withdrew to Costa Rica, where 
he readily deposed Carillo and became Gov- 
ernor. But the popular sentiment upon which 
he depended was short-lived. His enemies 
seized a favorable moment to declare against 
him, and he and a handful of adherents were 
surrounded in San Jose by an overwhelming 
force. A gallant defence and a retreat to Car- 
tago availed him nothing ; with his two sons 
and principal officers, he was captured, tried for 
inciting rebellion, and immediately shot. Thus 
did Francisco Morazan, after a lifetime of de- 
votion to his country, reap the inevitable reward 
of Central American patriots. 

Morazan's mantle descended upon his trusted 
lieutenant, General Cabanas, an upright, able 



238 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

man. With a band of S}Tnpathizers he retired 
to San Sah*ador, where he was welcomed by 
^Malespin, then in practical control of the coun- 
try. The latter, a former bandit, had been 
identified with Carrera, but, recognizing the 
prevalence of liberal sentiment among the 
people, he had thought it expedient to change 
his \-iews and to affect the interests of the 
masses. Civil dissension followed, and a state 
of virtual anarchy existed throughout Cen- 
tral America : principles were cast aside or 
subordinated to the petty jealousies of military 
leaders, whose quarrels and alliances form an 
historic tangle which ue shall not attempt to 
follow. An invasion of Nicaragua by Hon- 
duran and San Salvadoran troops under Ma- 
lespin. in 1844, and a bloody struggle at Leon, 
ushered in an era of comparative peace. This 
peace was broken by an unimportant local dis- 
turbance, by the English seizure of San Juan 
in Januar}-, 1848, and by Somoza's insurrection 
of 1849. 

A dispute between Don Fruto Chamorro, 
the Servile leader who succeeded Pineda as 
President of Nicarasrua in iS^i, and Don 
Francisco Castellon, representing the Liberal 
party, — each of whom claimed to have been 
chosen Chief Executive at the biennial election 
of 1853, — again plunged the country into civil 
war. Chamorro. being in actual possession 



EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY 239 

of the reins of government, promptly arrested 
his rival, banished him from the country, and 
on April thirtieth, 1854, had himself proclaimed 
President for four years. Castellon had sought 
refuge in Honduras, where he was well received 
by President Cabanas; but within a week of 
Chamorro's bold announcement of the proposed 
extension of his incumbency, the Liberal leader 
landed at Realejo, gathered his adherents about 
him, and soon drove his rival to the Servile 
stronghold of Granada. A long and indecisive 
siege followed. Castellon was proclaimed Pro- 
visional Director by his party, and Chamorro, 
dying on the twelfth of March, 1855, was suc- 
ceeded by Don Jose Maria Estrada. The 
Liberal troops were commanded by General 
Jose Trinidad Munoz, a veteran of Santa Ana's, 
while the Servile forces were led by Don Ponci- 
ano Corral, an able but unscrupulous man, who 
was subsequently shot for treachery. 

Such was the state of affairs when there ap- 
peared upon the scene a man destined not only 
to influence materially the course of Central 
American events, but, by the brilliancy and 
daring of his brief career, to concentrate the 
attention of the civilized world upon what, but 
for him, would have been an unimportant 
struggle. This man was William Walker, the 
greatest of modern filibusters. 



CHAPTER XIII 

WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 

WILLIAM WALKER was born in 
Nashville, Tennessee, on the eighth 
of May, 1824. He was the eldest 
son of a Scotch banker, and was destined by 
his parents for the church ; but although he 
essayed three professions before reaching his 
twenty-fifth year, the ministry seems never to 
have appealed to him as a desirable or suitable 
career. The University of Tennessee, from 
which he graduated in 1838, afforded him the 
elements of a sound education, which a course 
of medical lectures in Edinburgh and two 
years' travel on the continent of Europe were 
intended to complete ; but a brief professional 
experience in Philadelphia and Nashville caused 
him to abandon medicine. He then went to New 
Orleans, studied law, and was admitted to the 
bar. His new pursuit seems to have attracted 
him as little as the practice of medicine, for he 
soon forsook it for the fascinations of journalism. 
In 1849 his restless spirit drove him westward, 
and the following year he reached California 
and became editor of the San Francisco 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 24 1 

Herald. A short imprisonment for contempt 
of court, a duel without serious results, and 
a brief return to the practice of law marked 
the next two years and led him to the 
threshold of his adventurous military career, 
which ended in death but rendered his name 
historic. Urged by his " destiny," as he called 
it, he visited Sonora at the time when De Boul- 
bon's first expedition was approaching its un- 
fortunate conclusion. Thenceforth his dreams 
were of martial glory, of empires wrested 
from nerveless Spanish-American hands, of a 
new home for slavery, in which he fervently 
believed. 

In planning his career of conquest, it was 
perhaps natural that his thoughts should turn 
first to Sonora, from which De Boulbon had 
just been driven. Unlike the latter, he was 
unable to negotiate any contract that could 
be construed as an excuse for interfering in 
Mexican affairs, and the United States Gov- 
ernment was actively hostile to filibustering 
projects ; but notwithstanding obstacles that 
would have daunted most men, he boldly under- 
took the conquest of the western States of 
Mexico. Funds were supplied, somewhat 
sparingly, by rich slaveholders interested in 
extending their sphere of influence, and a 
sufficient number of adventurers were attracted 
by the promise of five hundred acres of land 

16 



242 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

and four dollars daily pay for each man. A 
brig was chartered, arms and ammunition were 
procured, and all was ready for a start, when, 
in July, 1853, the United States marshal seized 
the vessel. Three months later a more suc- 
cessful attempt was made, and forty-five " emi- 
grants," including Walker and Emory, sailed 
for La Paz. Reaching their destination after a 
brief stop at Cape San Lucas, they captured the 
town on November third. Three days after- 
wards a vessel bearing a new Mexican Governor 
arrived, and was promptly seized. An election 
was then held, resulting in the choice of Walker 
as President, and ten minor oiHces were filled 
by the appointment of as many adventurers. 
A declaration of independence was issued ; 
Sonora, which had not yet been invaded, was 
solemnly annexed, and its name was bestowed 
upon the new Republic. 

Meanwhile, recruiting had been actively car- 
ried on in San Francisco, and on the seventh of 
December between two and three hundred fili- 
busters sailed to join their chief. Their arrival 
at Walker's camp meant no great accession to 
his strength, however, for the new-comers proved 
a mutinous lot, most of whom subsequently de- 
serted. The discovery of a plot, to blow up the 
magazine and decamp during the ensuing con- 
fusion with such booty as could be secured, re- 
sulted in the trial of a dozen conspirators and 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 243 

the execution of two of them. The troops were 
then mustered and permitted to choose between 
submitting to salutary discipline and leaving 
the camp. The original party and a few of 
the new arrivals proved faithful ; the remainder 
were disarmed and allowed to 00. 

A little army of less than a hundred adven- 
turers now set forth into the wilderness to 
invade and subjugate the State of Sonora. 
Hostile Indians hovered about their flanks, 
disease and desertion assailed their dwindling 
columns ; but not until their force was reduced 
to less than fifty men did they reluctantly turn 
back. The Mexicans, emboldened by their re- 
treat, hung about, picking off stragglers but 
avoiding open combat. Where the trail passed 
through a narrow valley between commanding 
hills, Indians appeared ahead and on the flank, 
and opened a harassing fire. His Excellency, 
the President of Sonora, a boot on one foot, a 
shoe upon the other, resorted to strategy. Leav- 
ing a dozen men concealed in the bushes, he fell 
back toward the entrance to the gorge, which 
had already been occupied by the enemy. De- 
ceived by apparent retreat, the Indians who had 
disputed his passage pursued him, riding straight 
into his skilfully planted ambush. A dozen ri- 
fles emptied as many saddles, and the filibusters 
met with no further resistance from their amazed 
and cowed foes. Thirty-five tattered, footsore 



244 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

adventurers reached San Vincente, where a gar- 
rison of eighteen men had been left, only to find 
that twelve had deserted, while the other six had 
fallen victims to a Mexican attack. That the 
conquest of Sonora had failed could not be con- 
cealed, and the handful of would-be conquerors 
were compelled to turn their faces toward the 
Californian frontier. A sharp skirmish dis- 
persed the opposing natives, and on the eighth 
of May, 1854, thirty-four gaunt survivors of the 
army of Sonora marched across the line and 
surrendered to the United States authorities. 
The trial of their leader for breaking the neu- 
trality laws ended in acquittal, and he resumed 
his journalistic labors in San Francisco. But 
while his expedition had ended in failure, he 
had achieved a military reputation which en- 
abled him to procure both recruits and funds 
for the invasion and conquest of Nicaragua. 
In October of the year which witnessed the 
downfall of the Republic of Sonora, an Ameri- 
can named Byron Cole, an agent of Walker's, 
appeared in Nicaragua and made a contract 
with Castellon to supply his government with 
three hundred American " colonists," who, in 
return for a liberal grant of land, were to per- 
form military service. The Democratic army 
was hard pressed by Servile forces, and the 
prospect of aid from a formidable corps of 
American riflemen was exceedingly welcome. 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 245 

But the expected reinforcements were slow in 
coming. Walker fell sick, funds were difficult 
to procure, and it was not until late in April 
that preparations for the departure of the fili- 
busters from San Francisco were completed. 
At the last moment a new difficulty arose. 
The brig " Vesta," purchased for the expedi- 
tion, was attached for debts incurred by her 
former owners ; but Walker succeeded in ob- 
taining a release and slipping away to sea on 
the morning of the fourth of May, 1855, before 
other hungry creditors could detain him. Fifty- 
six adventurers in that ancient brig skirted the 
Pacific coast, and after a long and stormy voy- 
age reached Realejo on the sixteenth of June. 
Colonel Ramirez and Captain Doubleday, of 
the Democratic army, met and escorted Walker 
and Major Crocker to Leon, where they were 
warmly welcomed by the Provisional Director, 
Castellon. The entire party of Americans was 
received into the Nicaraguan army, organized 
as a separate corps with Walker as colonel, 
Kewen as lieutenant-colonel, and Crocker as 
major, and named " La Falange Americana," 
" the American Phalanx." 

The Serviles controlled the transit route from 
San Juan del Sur to Virgin Bay on the lake, 
whence lines of steamers ran to Greytown, and 
it was decided that Walker should possess him- 
self of this important road and the adjacent 



246 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

country. The project commended itself to the 
adventurer, partly because it insured him an 
independent command, partly because it en- 
abled him to communicate readily with San 
Francisco, and to obtain supplies and recruits. 

He sailed from Realejo in the " Vesta " on 
the twenty-third of June, 1855, with his handful 
of Americans and about one hundred and fifty 
native troops, landed near Brito, and advanced 
upon Rivas, which was strongly fortified and 
garrisoned by twelve hundred men under Colo- 
nel Boscha. 

The march from the coast began at midnight 
during a heavy rain and continued throughout 
the following day, much time being lost by the 
difficulty of keeping to the trail in the darkness 
and the muddy condition of the country. About 
nine o'clock in the evening the little force 
reached the village of Tola, marched down the 
street undetected in the rain and darkness, 
took the cuartel by surprise, and killed several of 
the enemy without loss to themselves. As this 
encounter could not fail to apprise the Rivas 
garrison of their approach, haste seemed un- 
necessary ; they therefore rested over night, and 
set out again next morning after a substantial 
breakfast, much refreshed and encouraged by 
the brilliant flood of sunshine which had fol- 
lowed the storm. There were no signs of the 
enemy until the outskirts of the town were 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 247 

reached, when a barricade, through which 
grinned the muzzle of a twenty-four pounder, 
brought the adventurers to a standstill. 

Instructing the native troops to follow the 
Americans, and by occupying strategic posi- 
tions within the town to prevent the escape of 
the enemy. Walker formed his little force in 
column and advanced at a brisk charge. Un- 
dismayed by a hail of grape and canister, which 
passed harmlessly over their heads, the little 
handful of Americans passed the barricade, 
only to find another and more formidable one 
before them, while a brisk cross-fire from loop- 
holed walls made their position far from safe. 
They advanced toward the plaza, hugging the 
house walls to avoid the hail of bullets, and 
finally reached a point where a hot fire from 
unseen foes rendered shelter imperative. After 
a brief consultation they broke into a substan- 
tial building, barricaded the shattered door, and 
stubbornly resisted the fierce attacks of an 
enemy encouraged by success, until heavy 
losses and the appearance of artillery con- 
vinced them of the necessity of cutting their 
way out, or perishing. 

A bold dash enabled them to gain the shel- 
ter of a wooded ravine, through which they 
retired, holding the enemy at bay with their 
unerring rifles. Once in the open country, 
near San Jorge, they took counsel of one an- 



248 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

other, and decided to fall back upon San Juan 
del Sur, hoping to seize some craft and make 
their escape, since the native auxiliaries had 
deserted, and further offensive operations were 
out of the question. The retreat was success- 
fully accomplished, although the presence of 
wounded men retarded it considerably ; and by 
seizing a Costa Rican schooner the whole party 
escaped to the " Vesta," which was cruising off 
the coast. The half dozen wounded Americans 
left in Rivas were chained upon a pile of fag- 
gots and burned alive, by order of Colonel 
Boscha. 

This affray cost the lives of some of Walker's 
most valued men. Crocker was wounded in two 
places, and his right arm was broken, but he used 
his pistol with his left hand until a third bullet 
laid him dead. Kewen fell; Doubleday was 
shot in the head, although not fatally ; and De 
Brissot and Anderson were wounded. 

Returning to Leon with his men. Walker 
preferred charges against Colonel Ramirez, 
commander of the native auxiliaries, alleging 
that his defection was due to an understanding 
with General Munoz, whose jealousy of the 
filibuster was apparent. Castellon, loath to 
offend Munoz, hesitated to act, and Walker 
embarked his men aboard the " Vesta," under 
pretence of offering his services to the Presi- 
dent of Honduras. At this juncture Munoz 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 249 

was slain in battle with the enemy, and the 
Provisional Director, relieved from his awkward 
predicament, begged Walker to return. But 
the latter, who had found a partisan in Don 
Jose Maria Valle, sailed for San Juan del Sur, 
reached there on the twenty-ninth of August, 
and advanced four days later upon Rivas. At 
Virgin Bay he was attacked by six hundred men 
under Guardiola, a notorious and cruel Hondu- 
ran brigand allied to the Serviles, who withdrew 
after a fierce battle of two hours, leaving sixty 
dead and a hundred wounded upon the field. 
The filibusters and their native auxiliaries under 
Valle, outnumbered five to one, lost only three 
natives killed and a few, Americans and Nica- 
raguans, wounded. 

Although successful in this engagement, 
Walker returned to San Juan del Sur, where 
he was joined by numbers of Californian re- 
cruits. There he first learned of the death 
of Castellon, who had fallen a victim to the 
cholera raging in the land. Meanwhile Corral, 
Guardiola's successor in command of the Servile 
forces, fell back upon Rivas, and prepared to 
dispute the advance of the filibusters. But 
Walker, learning from intercepted correspon- 
dence that Granada was well-nigh defenceless, 
determined to avoid battle and to surprise the 
capital. To this end, the Democratic army, 
now four hundred strong, left San Juan on the 



250 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

morning of October eleventh, marched to Vir- 
gin Bay, and embarked upon a lake steamer for 
Granada. The time was well chosen. General 
Martinez, of the Servile army, had just defeated 
the Leonese, and was in Granada on his way to 
Rivas, where he proposed to meet and annihi- 
late the northern adventurers. All day long 
the banging dombas, pealing bells, and shout- 
ing populace had done honor to the victors. 
Aguardiente flowed like water, until the valiant 
veteranos felt a sentiment akin to pity for the 
filibusters who must soon encounter them. 
Far into the night the sound of revelry was 
heard, and not until the grey of morning 
streaked the eastern sky did the city sink to 
sleep. But suddenly a musket shot awoke the 
nodding sentry at the barrack gates. Another 
and another rang out clear, followed by a crash- 
ing volley from the deadly American rifles. A 
terror-stricken picket fell back in disorder, and 
close behind came the advance guard of the 
Democrats, lead by Walker and Valle. One 
hundred and ten men carried the town by as- 
sault, losing only a drummer boy, while the 
frisfhtened Serviles saved themselves as best 
they could. 

Firmly intrenched in the stronghold of his 
enemies, Walker established a provisional gov- 
ernment and attempted, although at first unsuc- 
cessfully, to negotiate with Corral. The 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 25 1 

prospect of a peaceful settlement was dimin- 
ished by the rashness of a new accession to the 
filibusters' ranks, Parker H. French. By an 
ineffectual attack upon Fort San Carlos, French 
provoked the Serviles to retaliate by killing 
half a dozen neutral Californian passengers at 
Virgin Bay, and by firing upon a Transit 
steamer at San Carlos. Unable to punish the 
guilty individuals, Walker adopted the novel ex- 
pedient of thrusting the responsibility for this 
outrage upon the Servile Secretary of State, who 
had been captured when Granada was taken. 
The Secretary was accordingly tried by a court- 
martial of his countrymen, found guilty, sen- 
tenced to death, and executed, the victim of a new 
interpretation of the principles of constitutional 
government. But whatever may be thought 
of the justice of this proceeding, its political 
effect was undoubtedly good. Corral immedi- 
ately agreed to open negotiations, and a meeting 
between the opposing generals was arranged for 
the twenty-third of October. The conference 
took place at Granada, which decked itself in 
crala attire to welcome the approach of peace. 
Two hundred filibusters, desperate men with 
red ribbons tied around their black slouch hats, 
trousers tucked into cowhide boots, and trusty 
rifles glittering in the sun, joined their swarthy 
allies in greeting the Servile commander, 
who, accompanied by Walker and his staff, 



252 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

entered the town and rode to the Cathedral, 
where High Mass was celebrated. An agree- 
ment was drawn up providing for a suspension 
of hostilities, and Don Patricio Rivas was ap- 
pointed President /r^ tempore. Walker became 
commander-in-chief of the army of twelve hun- 
dred men, at a salary of six thousand dollars a 
year, while the portfolio of war in the new cab- 
inet was given to Corral. In consenting to 
this arrangement Corral betrayed the interests 
of the so-called Servile President, Estrada ; 
he was also faithless to his new friends, for 
soon after signing the treaty he wrote to Guar- 
diola and other Serviles urging a renew^al of 
hostilities and promising substantial aid. The 
correspondence fell into Walker's hands and 
was promptly placed before the President and 
Cabinet. A court-martial was ordered, consist- 
ing, by prisoner's request, exclusively of Ameri- 
cans, and Corral threw himself upon its mercy. 
There could be no doubt of his guilt ; and, not- 
withstanding his great popularity and the inter- 
cession of influential friends, he was sentenced 
to death, and shot, as a warning to his 
accomplices. 

Recruits from the United States flocked to 
Walker's standard, attracted by his success and 
the alluring prospects held out to them, and 
filibustering became a popular occupation. 
Numerous expeditions were organized, directed 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 253 

chiefly against Cuba and the Central American 
republics, but they usually resulted in disaster 
and death to the participants. The so-called 
Kinney expedition was one of these unfortunate 
fiascos. Robert Charles Frederick the First, 
king of the Mosquito Coast, had bartered away 
a part of his domain for rum and various other 
essentials of his recently acquired civiHzation ; 
and the title to this tract of land finally passed 
into the possession of Henry L. Kinney of 
Philadelphia. The latter attempted to occupy 
his property, but numerous unforeseen obstacles 
intervened. The grant had been revoked by 
the King in an interval of sobriety ; Great 
Britain, his self-appointed protector, repudiated 
it ; Nicaragua claimed the disputed territory as 
her own ; and finally, to complete the adventur- 
er's discomfiture, the United States authorities 
arrested him as he was upon the point of start- 
ing for his alleged possessions. He finally suc- 
ceeded in effecting his departure, but was 
wrecked upon Turk's Island, and reached Grey- 
town with his expedition in a badly demoralized 
state. Many of his "colonists" went up the 
river to join Walker, who, firmly established in 
power, returned a curt refusal to Kinney's sug- 
gestion of an offensive and defensive alliance, 
and even threatened to hang that gentleman 
should he find him upon Nicaraguan soil. 
Within four months of the formation of the 



254 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

new government Walker had collected a force 
of about twelve hundred Americans and other 
foreigners. Many of these bold adventurers 
were surprised and disappointed to find them- 
selves subjected to rigid military discipline, quite 
different from the license they had anticipated. 
But the well-behaved had nothing to complain of, 
and had peace lasted, their material prosperity 
would have been assured. Unfortunately, the 
sudden rise of an obscure adventurer aroused a 
host of powerful enemies. Great Britain, whose 
systematic encroachments upon the Isthmus 
had resulted in the establishment of numerous 
territorial claims, saw with alarm the growing 
power which seemed to threaten her supremacy 
and used all her arts to destroy it. 

The policy of the United States, while not 
actively hostile, was of a nature to invite rather 
than discourage the hostility of others. The 
country was divided in its views of the fili- 
busters' cause, the anti-British element desir- 
ing the recognition of Walker's government 
as a means of checking English aggression, 
and the Abolitionists opposing it as encourag- 
ing the spread of slavery. Thus the Adminis- 
tration, anxious to please everybody, was in a 
quandary, which it sought to escape by re- 
fusing to receive Parker H. French, the ac- 
credited Nicaraguan minister, until satisfied 
that the existing government was a legiti- 



WILLIAM .WALKER, FILIBUSTER 255 

mate and stable one. French, whose antece- 
dents were not of the best, was even arrested 
on an old charge, a proceeding which Walker 
chose to regard as a breach of international 
etiquette, and which caused a suspension of 
diplomatic intercourse between the two coun- 
tries. A few months later another Nicaraguan 
minister was refused recognition ; but a third, 
the Padre Vijil, bringing news of Walker's 
successes against his Costa Rican and Servile 
foes, was received. He remained at his post un- 
til, disgusted by the studied discourtesy with 
which he was treated, he relinquished his mis- 
sion and returned to Nicaragua. 

Encouraged by the failure of the United 
States Government to give support, material 
or moral, to the filibusters, and aided finan- 
cially by Great Britain and Peru, Costa Rica 
expelled a commission sent from Nicaragua to 
negotiate a treaty of peace, and, on the twenty- 
sixth of February, 1856, declared war against 
that country. President Rivas at once issued 
a counter declaration, and Walker, as Com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, prepared to con- 
duct an aggressive campaign in the enemy's 
country. But Colonel Louis Schlessinger, who 
was chosen to lead the advance, proved both 
incapable and cowardly. His little force of 
two hundred men was surprised by five hun- 
dred Costa Ricans under Baron von Biilow, 



256 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

and utterly defeated, despite a brave resis- 
tance by the New York and California com- 
panies under Captain Rudler and Major 
O'Neill. Schlessinger fled at the first shot, 
followed by the French and Germans ; but the 
Americans held out until more than half their 
number had fallen, when they retreated across 
the border. The prisoners and wounded were 
massacred, by order of President Mora. 

The result of this defeat was disastrous to 
the Democratic cause. The Serviles, sup- 
pressed but not defeated, spread the tidings 
far and wide. The neighboring republics 
became firmer in their refusal to recognize 
the Rivas government. Guardiola prepared 
to lead his hordes upon Leon ; the faint- 
hearted among Walker's men applied for 
leave of absence or deserted ; and their leader 
tossed upon a sick bed, unable for the time 
to stem the tide of adversity. To add to the 
misfortunes of the filibusters, the steamers of 
the Transit Company were suddenly with- 
drawn, cutting off communication with Cali- 
fornia and preventing the accession of recruits 
or the receipt of munitions of war. This hos- 
tile move on the part of the Company was due 
to Walker's action in revoking its charter 
and seizing its property for non-payment of 
large sums due to the Government. By the 
terms of the charter Nicaragua was to receive 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 257 

ten thousand dollars annually and ten per 
cent of the net profits accruing under the 
concession; but the Company, whose history 
is characterized by Minister Squier as " an 
infamous career of deception and fraud," ma- 
nipulated its books so as to show no profits, 
and for a long time evaded its obligations. 
A commission appointed to investigate the 
matter having reported that $250,000 was 
lawfully due to the Government, Walker re- 
sorted to the drastic measures already men- 
tioned, apparently oblivious of the fact that, 
while his position was morally sound, he was 
guilty of indiscretion in making a powerful 
and relentless enemy. Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
then manager of the Company's affairs in New 
York, angry at the sequestration of his prop- 
erty, extended financial aid to Costa Rica, 
thus inaugurating a bitter personal warfare, in 
which the power of wealth was used with 
ultimate success against a well-nigh penniless 
adventurer. 

Surrounded by dangers. Walker arose from 
his bed and took personal command of the 
army. As the withdrawal of the California 
steamers rendered occupation of the Transit 
route useless, he fell back to Granada with 
his entire force, leaving the Costa Ricans to 
possess themselves of Virgin Bay and to show 
their appreciation of Mr. Vanderbilt's assist- 

17 



25S OCEAX TO OCEAA- 

ance by killing his servants and burning his 
property. President Mora established head- 
quarters at Rivas with Baron von Biilow 
and three thousand Costa Rican regulars ; 
he felt safe from attack, as Walker was appar- 
ently preparing to leave the countr}% and the 
lake steamer " San Carlos " was carrying troops 
across the lake and down the river. But the 
filibuster struck when least expected. Leaving 
Granada with four hundred Americans and a 
hundred native auxiliaries, he entered Rivas 
by four different routes at eight o'clock on 
the morning of the eleventh of April. The 
Costa Ricans, although surprised, offered a 
stubborn resistance, killing and wounding 
fifty Democrats, and sustaining a loss of about 
two hundred, before they were driven from the 
plaza and cathedral. The Americans, outnum- 
bered six to one, entrenched themselves in 
the cathedral until the dawn of the follow- 
ing day, when they "^dthdrew wdth their 
wounded, unhindered by the enemy. Al- 
though this battle was a technical defeat for 
Walker, it showed so conclusively the supe- 
rioritv of the foreis:ners, that Mora was discour- 
aged and lay idle at Rivas until a still more 
terrible foe sent him posting southward. The 
putrefying corpses of the slain, thrust into 
wells or left to feed the buzzards, engendered 
an awiul pestilence, before w^iich the army of 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 259 

occupation melted away like mist. Mora fled. 
Canas, upon whom the command devolved, 
remained until the arrival of several hundred 
American recruits at Granada seemed to pre- 
sage renewed activity on the part of the fili- 
busters, when he abandoned his wounded and 
set out for Guanacaste. Five hundred gaunt 
stragglers crossed the frontier, all that re- 
mained of the army that had set forth to 
crush the Northern adventurers. 

The election for President held in May, 
1856, had been so flagrantly irregular that 
R-ivas ordered a new one in June; and the 
Serviles, aware of the impossibility of electing 
one of their own party, and fearful of their 
Democratic countrymen, chose Walker as 
their candidate. Thereupon the other three 
aspirants, Rivas, Jerez, and Salazar, united 
to defeat the foreigner, resorting to the 
trickery and violence inseparable from early 
Central American politics ; but they suffered a 
crushing defeat at the polls, where Walker re- 
ceived 15,835 of 23,236 votes cast. He was 
inaugurated on the twelfth of July, appointed a 
cabinet consisting chiefly of his native adherents, 
and, rid of his puppet, Rivas, entered upon the 
administration of public affairs. Strangely 
enough, he received prompt recognition from 
his old enemy, Secretary Marcy, who, under 
the impression that Rivas still held offlce, di- 



26o OCEAN TO OCEAN 

rected Minister Wheeler to tender to the exist- 
ing government the good wishes of the United 
States. Nor did the fact that Wheeler obeyed 
his instructions to the letter prevent his sacri- 
fice upon the altar of Marcy's wrath when the 
blunder came to light. 

An allied force from Guatemala, Honduras 
and San Salvador, instigated by Rivas and his 
friends, invaded the northern departments ; by 
the first of July they had possession of Leon, 
which they used as a base of operation against 
foraging parties from Granada. Masaya fell 
soon afterwards, and the allies took up an almost 
impregnable position on the crest of a volcanic 
mount above the rock-bound lake. From this 
eyrie they harassed the surrounding country, 
until Walker, weary of their incessant activity, 
resolved to attack and disperse them. On the 
morning of the eleventh of October he left 
Granada with eight hundred men, marched 
upon Masaya, reached the suburbs of the town 
late in the evening, and bivouacked for the 
night. Early in the morning the attack was 
begun, under cover of a hea\'y howitzer fire, the 
enemy falling back and finally abandoning the 
main plaza to the assailing force, but retaining 
possession of two other plazas and the inter- 
vening houses. Walker then resorted to tactics 
peculiar to Central American warfare. Direct- 
ing a heavy artillery fire upon the besieged, he 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 26 1 

set sappers to work cutting through the adobe 
house walls. Slowly but surely the filibusters 
closed in upon the enemy, and when night fell 
it seemed that the morrow would see the red- 
starred flag of Nicaragua floating over Masaya. 
Meanwhile Zavala and eight hundred Ser- 
viles, making a forced march from Diriomio, a 
small village about fifteen miles south of the 
capital, entered Granada, confident of meeting 
with little resistance from the scanty garrison. 
But they were destined to learn more of Amer- 
ican courage and military efBciency. A hun- 
dred and fifty filibusters, most of them invalids, 
assisted by a few civilians, occupied the church, 
armory, and hospital, and offered a desperate 
resistance. Zavala, repulsed again and again, 
revenged himself upon helpless non-combatants 
who had trusted to their neutral character to 
protect them. The American minister's house 
was attacked; three of his countrymen were 
massacred; and several neutral natives, know- 
ing their compatriots, saved themselves by flight. 
For twenty-one hours a constantly increasing 
force of assailants maintained the siege, their 
frequent demands for surrender and threats of 
death in the event of refusal being met by cries 
of defiance from the garrison. At night a 
courier from the beleaq-uered adventurers made 
his way through the encircling foe, only 
to meet Walker's forces rapidly returning to 



262 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the rescue. News had reached them of the 
attack upon Granada, and their leader, although 
loath to relinquish an assured victory, had im- 
mediately turned back. The ensuing fight was 
brief but decisive. Checked for a time by a 
powerful battery placed to command the narrow 
roadway, Walker made a stirring appeal to his 
men, who in response dashed forward in a des- 
perate charge, driving the enemy before them 
like dust before a storm. A detachment de- 
tailed for the purpose cut off the retreat of the 
allies, and of Zavala's army barely half escaped. 
Four hundred had fallen at Masaya, four hun- 
dred fell at Granada, while Walker's total loss 
in killed and wounded did not exceed one 
hundred. 

This engagement discouraged the allies, 
and for a time they ceased their pernicious 
activity. But early in November General 
Hornsby, who had been sent to Virgin Bay 
v/ith a small force of men, made an unsuccess- 
ful attack upon General Canas, who, at the 
head of eight hundred Costa Ricans, had 
landed at San Juan del Sur and threatened the 
re-established Transit. Thereupon Walker 
and Henningsen, a recent accession to the 
filibusters' ranks, left Granada with two hun- 
dred and fifty troops, reached Virgin Bay on the 
afternoon of the eleventh, and early next morn- 
ing attacked Canas, driving him in disorder 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 263 

through San Juan del Sur and along the coast 
trail to Rivas, where he was left secure behind 
his barricades. 

During this, period of constant military 
activity, various changes were made in the 
constitution and laws of the country. Most 
of these were of a nature calculated to increase 
and perpetuate the power of the Americans; 
they culminated, on September twenty-second, 
in the promulgation of a decree annulling the 
Act of the Federal Constituent Assembly of 
April seventeenth, 1824, by which slavery had 
been abolished. This attempt to re-establish an 
obsolete system, which was regarded with fear 
and repulsion by a large portion of the pop- 
ulation, was largely instrumental in bringing 
about the downfall of the filibusters' ephemeral 
empire. 

The reappearance of Costa Rican soldiery 
in the vicinity of the Transit menaced Walker's 
communication with the United States, and 
induced him to abandon Granada and con- 
centrate his forces farther south. That the 
enemy might not suspect his purpose, he again 
attacked Masaya, marching upon it from 
Granada with three hundred men, while two 
hundred and fifty infantry under Colonel 
Jacques sailed for Virgin Bay to reinforce 
Colonel Markham. The assault occurred on 
the fifteenth of November, the allies resigning 



264 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the suburbs to the Americans and falling back 
into the heart of the town. Fighting continued 
until midnight of the seventeenth, when the 
filibusters withdrew to Granada, and sailed two 
days later for the island of Ometepe, leaving 
Henningsen with a small force to destroy the 
city they had held so long. 

The siege, defence, and destruction of 
Granada was one of the most remarkable 
achievements chronicled in the annals of irreg- 
ular warfare. Surrounded by an enemy four 
thousand strong, four hundred and nineteen 
resolute Americans held out for eighteen days, 
destroying the city and gradually fighting their 
way to the lake. Scarcely had Walker left on 
his way southward, when Henningsen began 
firing the houses of the town. Huge columns 
of smoke told the allies that the work of de- 
struction had begun, and gave the signal for a 
desperate assault. The Church of the Guada- 
loupe was carried, and from its massive walls 
sharpshooters kept up a galling fire upon the 
filibusters. So fatal were its effects that on the 
twenty-seventh, three days after fighting had 
begun, the church was stormed, taken, and 
transformed into a fortress by the Americans. 
Meanwhile the town was reduced to ashes and 
Henningsen began throwing up a continuous 
line of earthworks toward the lake, moving his 
sick and wounded with him and leaving seventy 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 265 

men to garrison the church. Cholera, typhus, 
and the enemy's bullets had swept off scores ; 
ammunition for the howitzers ran short; no relief 
was in sight, but still the little band held out. 
On the twelfth of December the last provisions 
were consumed, and Henningsen sent a mes- 
senger to Walker asking for the relief which, 
unknown to him, was approaching. That 
nisfht the lake steamer " La Viro^en " landed 
Colonel Watters with a hundred and sixty men, 
vx^ho fought their way past four barricades into 
Henningsen's lines and helped him to cut a 
passage to the lake shore. One hundred and 
sixty-six survivors of the four hundred and nine- 
teen men charged with the destruction of Gran- 
ada embarked on the morning of the fourteenth, 
leaving the baffled allies to enter a wilderness 
of smoking ruins, over which floated a banner 
significantly inscribed, " Aqui f ue Granada " — ~ 
" Here was Granada! " 

Upon the junction of Walker's and Henning- 
sen's forces in the Meridional Department the 
allies abandoned the southern part of the coun- 
try and concentrated their troops at Masaya, 
leaving Walker free to possess himself of Rivas 
on the eleventh of December, 1856. The 
Americans were thus in direct communication 
with the United States, and could obtain re- 
cruits and munitions of war as long; as the 
Transit Company's steamers were run. But 



266 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

an adventurer named Spencer, a tool of the 
implacable Vanderbilt, descended the San 
Carlos and San Juan rivers with a hundred 
and twenty Costa Ricans, surprised and de- 
feated a party of Americans at the mouth of the 
Sarapiqui, possessed himself of Greytown and 
the Transit's Company's steamers, and finally, 
reenforced by eight hundred Costa Rican troops, 
made himself master of the entire San Juan 
valley. He also captured both lake steamers, 
thus securing control of the lake and prevent- 
ing any sudden movement of the filibusters by 
water. 

Numerous attempts to regain control of the 
river were made during the first few months of 
1857, by parties of recruits from the United 
States, but without avail. Colonel Lockridge 
and Colonel Titus, with four hundred and twenty 
men, attacked and routed the Costa Ricans at the 
mouth of the Sarapiqui, and Titus continued 
to Castillo, the surrender of which he demanded. 
But negotiations were prolonged by the be- 
leaguered garrison until reenforcements arrived, 
when Titus incontinently fled. A subsequent 
advance by Lockridge ended in failure; and 
the San Juan valley was left in possession of 
Walker's enemies. 

Meanwhile the allies had been drawing their 
lines closer about Rivas, where the Democratic 
forces now lay besieged. Recruits continued to 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 267 

arrive by way of San Juan del Sur, but in num- 
bers insufficient to maintain the strength of an 
army suffering constant depletion from death 
and desertion. Several sorties by the Ameri- 
cans were repulsed with loss, ammunition and 
food became scarce, and the allies, now some 
seven thousand strong, were constantly strength- 
ening their position. On the sixteenth of March 
four hundred men, led by Walker himself, at- 
tacked San Jorge, held by twenty-five hundred 
Costa Ricans. Despite a desperate display of 
courage, they were driven back upon a party 
of the enemy which had attacked Rivas dur- 
ing their absence, and of whose proximity they 
were ignorant. A sudden blaze of musketry 
from a house by the wayside was their first 
intimation of a foe in the rear; and in the 
vain assault which followed many a filibuster 
met his fate. The shattered column reached 
Rivas at daybreak, having lost sixty or seventy 
men. 

This was the last action in which the Ameri- 
cans were the aggressors. A week later the 
allies made a general attack, but were repulsed 
with loss by the dwindling Democratic garrison, 
whose scanty diet of horse and mule meat does 
not seem to have impaired their courage. But 
evacuation of the town became imperative. 
The Transit route to the eastward had long 
been closed against their reenforcements, and 



268 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the San Francisco steamers, without which 
neither recruits nor supplies could reach them, 
were now withdrawn. Mr. Vanderbilt had tri- 
umphed, and the filibuster was constrained to 
accede to the demands of Captain C. H. Davis, 
of the U. S. S. " St. Mary's," lying at San Juan 
del Sur, that he surrender himself and his men 
to the United States, under promise of protec- 
tion to his native auxiliaries and a passage to 
Panama for himself and his American and for- 
eign adherents. With this agreement, consum- 
mated May first, 1857, Walkers career as a 
controlling factor in Central American affairs 
ceased. 

Walker entered a formal protest against the 
action of the United States in forcibly removing 
him from a country whose legal president he 
was ; and he straightway proceeded with prepara- 
tions for' regaining his lost ascendancy. In spite 
of strict surveillance he organized an expedition 
of veterans, and reached Greytown in safety. 
He went into camp to await the arrival of ex- 
pected reenforcements, while Colonel Anderson, 
with a small detachment, attacked and captured 
Castillo, and obtained possession of several river 
steamers. But the arrival at Greytown of Com- 
modore Paulding with the U. S. S. " Wabash " 
abruptly terminated the campaign so auspi- 
ciously begun. The filibusters were again for- 
cibly deported to the United States, where 



WILLIAM WALKER, FILIBUSTER 269 

Walker was tried for violating the neutrality 
laws, and promptly acquitted. 

Early in August, i860, Walker, prevented by 
British and American cruisers from reaching 
Greytown, landed with about a hundred m^en on 
the east coast of Honduras, — a state of the hos- 
tile coalition which had brought about his over- 
throw, — intending to fight his way to Nicaragua. 
It is doubtful whether he could have succeeded, 
even had foreign intervention been lacking, for 
the disaffected natives, upon whose aid he relied, 
would probably have failed him ; but the ubiqui- 
tous English man-of-war struck the last and 
fatal blow. Hardly had Truxillo fallen before 
the adventurers, when the " Icarus " appeared in 
port, and her commander, Captain Salmon, de- 
manded their surrender, threatening to open 
fire upon the town in the event of refusal. 
Menaced by the guns of the " Icarus," and hard 
pressed by seven hundred Honduran troops, 
Walker determined upon evacuation, which was 
accomplished at midnight of the twenty-first of 
August. But relentless fate pursued him, in 
the shape of the British warship. On the 
third of September he surrendered to her com- 
mander, who twice assured him that he was 
surrendering to the English forces, but who 
nevertheless delivered him to the Honduran 
authorities. The court-martial which followed 
could have but one result. Condemned to die 



270 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

by the fusillade, he met his end with the calm- 
ness and fortitude which ever characterized him 
in misfortune. The usual volley laid him 
writhing on the ground, whereupon a soldier 
stepped forward and, placing the muzzle of his 
musket at the victim's head, administered the 
coup de grace. 

Thus died, in his thirty-seventh year, William 
Walker, " the gray-eyed man of destiny," who, 
had he received from his native land the treat- 
ment to which he deemed himself entitled, 
would probably have achieved his ideal of a 
slave-owning Central American Empire. 



CHAPTER XIV 

NARRATIVE — MANAGUA TO CORINTO 

ON Monday morning, the third of Octo- 
ber, we left Granada for Managua, trav- 
elling over the eastern division of the 
Nicaragua National Railway, a narrow-gauge 
road owned and operated by the Government. 
The country traversed was less broken than 
that about Rivas, and seemed to us uninterest- 
ing although rich and productive. Masaya, 
the only considerable town through which we 
passed, is an interesting place populated princi- 
pally by Indians. These live in little, one-storied, 
palm-thatched houses built of bamboo plas- 
tered with mud, and half hidden in gardens 
and orchards. Because of the tract of ground 
surrounding each house, the town covers a large 
area ; it is quite unlike the usual Central Amer- 
ican city, in which numerous buildings of a 
single type, joining one another with no visible 
line of demarcation, produce the effect of a 
few enormous edifices, each covering an entire 
block. The centre of the plaza, contrary to 
custom, is occupied by an old Spanish church, 
probably situated upon the spot where Gil 



2/2 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Gonzales de Avila repulsed the attack of the 
treacherous Diriangan. The Spaniards, greatly 
outnumbered, owed their escape to the Indians' 
preference for capturing their foes alive and to 
the terror inspired by the horsemen, whose 
charges the natives could not withstand. 

Near the town and far below it is a deep, 
clear lake about three miles long, surrounded 
by vertical cliffs rising 360 or more feet above 
its surface. Although without an outlet, the 
water is fresh, and furnishes the supply for the 
adjacent town, to which it is transported in 
earthen jars, as it was centuries ago, by agua- 
doras, or water-carriers — women and girls 
trained to the task from infancy. On the west 
shore of the lake rises the cone of the volcano 
of Masaya, which, with the lake, occupies an 
oval area of depression about six miles long and 
four miles wide, where a large volcanic moun- 
tain, since destroyed by engulfment, once stood. 
The present peak is 2,200 feet high, and has 
been inactive since 1858, when it emitted a 
flow of lava. At the time of the conquest its 
vent was filled with a sea of molten matter, 
thought by the Spaniards to be gold ; and in 
1534, Fray Bias de Castillo, more courageous 
or more covetous than his fellows, made two 
descents into the crater, lowering a bucket at 
the end of a chain in a vain attempt to procure 
some of the precious metal. The bucket melted 



MANAGUA TO CORINTO 273 

the moment it touched the lava, and the Fray 
was drawn up half dead from sulphurous fumes 
and empty-handed. " This matter," he says, " re- 
sembles a red sea, and its commotions make as 
much noise as do the waves of the ocean when 
they dash against the rocks. This sea looks 
like the metal of which bells are made, or sul- 
phur or gold, in a state of fusion, except that it 
is covered with a black scum two or three fath- 
oms thick. Were it not for this mass of scum, 
or scorise, the fire would throw out such an ar- 
dor and lustre that it would be impossible to 
remain near it, or look upon it. Sometimes it 
breaks apart in certain places, and then one 
can perceive the matter, red and brilliant as the 
light of heaven. In the midst constantly rise 
two large masses of melted metal, four or five 
fathoms across, which are constantly free from 
the scum, and from which the liquid metal leaps 
forth on every side. The sound of these melted 
streams, dashing amongst the rocks, is like that 
of artillery battering the walls of a city. The 
rocks around this sea of metal are black to the 
height of seven or eight fathoms, which proves 
that the liquid matter sometimes rises to that 
distance. Upon the north-eastern side of the 
crater is the opening of a cavern, very deep, 
and as wide as the range of an arquebus. A 
stream of burning fluid flows into this cavern, 
which seems to be the outlet of the crater. It 

18 



274 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

runs for a few moments, stops, then commences 
again, and so on constantly. There comes forth 
from this cavern a thick smoke, greater than 
rises from the whole lake, which diffuses on all 
sides a very strong odor. There comes forth 
also a heat and brilliancy which cannot be de- 
scribed. During the night the summit of the 
mountain is pefectly illuminated, as are also the 
clouds, which seem to form a kind of tiara above 
it, which may be seen eighteen or twenty leagues 
on the land, and upwards of thirty at sea. The 
darker the night the more brilliant the volcano. 
It is worthy of remark that neither above nor 
below can the least flame be seen, except when 
a stone or arrow is thrown into the crater, which 
burns like a candle. 

*' During rains and tempests the volcano is 
most active; for when the storm reaches its 
height, it makes so many movements that one 
might say it was a living thing. The heat is 
so great that the rain is turned into vapor 
before reaching the bottom of the crater, and 
entirely obscures it. Both Indians and Span- 
iards afHrm that since the conquest, during a 
very rainy year, the burning metal rose to the 
top of the crater, and that the heat was then so 
great that everything was burnt for a league 
around. Such a quantity of burning vapor 
came from it that the trees and plants were 
dried up for more than two leagues. Indeed, 



MANAGUA TO CORINTO 275 

one cannot behold the volcano without fear, 
admiration, and repentance of his sins ; for 
it can be surpassed only by the eternal fire. 
Some confessors have imposed no other pen- 
ance than to visit this volcano." 

Reaching Managua in the middle of the 
forenoon we drove to Lupone's, an excellent 
hotel kept by Europeans, and after establishing 
ourselves comfortably, we set out to see the town. 
It is finely situated upon gently sloping ground 
on the southern shore of Lake Managua, and is 
regularly laid out and substantially built. Its 
population is estimated at about ten thousand. 
A fine church, a large market, and a block of 
public buildings consisting of offices, barracks, 
and the President's palace are the chief objects 
of interest. We ordered saddle-horses, intend- 
ing to ride to Lake Tiscapa, a sheet of water 
occupying the crater of an extinct volcano near 
the town; but a sudden and violent storm 
necessitated a change in our plans, and we 
passed the afternoon sitting at the door of our 
room, watching passers-by ford the muddy 
torrent which coursed down the street. An 
epidemic of contagious fever was raging, and, 
with visions of possible quarantine before us, 
we resolved to push on to Corinto the following 
day. 

Embarking early in the morning upon a 
small steamer, we were soon speeding over the 



276 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

quiet waters of the lake. To our left a succes- 
sion of dark volcanic peaks, their summits 
rounded by the storms of centuries, rose clothed 
in green, against an azure sky; to the right, 
beyond the broad expanse of lake, a hazy strip 
of blue marked the Matagalpa hills. 

Upon rounding a precipitous promontory to 
the left, we beheld the lofty peak of Momotombo 
twenty miles before us, its little plume of 
smoke and steam floating away to leeward. 
As we approached we could see cattle grazing 
on broad sloping /^/r^r<9^ around its base, while 
above a belt of vegetation gradually diminishing 
as the altitude increased, bare, precipitous, 
sulphur-stained slopes of ash rose to the 
smoking summit. 

Bubbles of steam burst at the surface of the 
lake near shore, and dim wreaths of vapor hung 
over portions of the surrounding country, re- 
minders of the 7nal pais, or bad lands, which 
occur extensively throughout the Cordillera de 
los Marabios, " extending, in some cases, for 
leagues in every direction. The lava current 
in places seems to have spread out in sheets, 
flowing elsewhere, however, in high and serpen- 
tine ridges, resembling Cyclopean walls, often 
capriciously inclosing spaces of arable ground, 
in which vegetation is luxuriant ; these are 
called by the natives corrales, yards. Hot 
springs, and openings in the ground emitting 



MANAGUA TO CORINTO 277 

hot air, smoke, and steam, called infernales, are 
common around the bases of these volcanoes. 
For large spaces the whole ground seems rest- 
ing upon a boiling cauldron, and is encrusted 
with mineral deposits. There are also many 
places where the ground is depressed and bare, 
resembling a honeycombed, ferruginous clay- 
pit, from which sulphurous vapors are con- 
stantly rising, destroying vegetation in the 
vicinity, but especially to the leeward, where they 
are carried by the wind. By daylight nothing 
is to be seen at these places, except a kind 
of tremulous motion of the heated atmosphere 
near the surface of the ground. But at night 
the whole is lighted by a flickering, bluish, and 
ethereal flame, like that of burning spirits, 
which spreads at one moment over the whole 
surface, at the next shoots up into high spires, 
and then diffuses itself again, in a strange un- 
earthly manner. This is called by the gente del 
campo, the people of the fields, la baile de los 
demonios, the dance of the devils." ^ 

We passed between the volcano and its ex- 
tinct and crumbling prototype Momotombito, 
and landed at a small wharf whence the west- 
ern division of the National Railway runs to 
Leon, Chinandega and Corinto. A train was 
awaiting us, and we were soon rolling through 
a monotonous country, which flurries of rain 

^ Squier's "Nicaragua." D. Appleton & Co., 1852. 



278 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

from the fast gathering clouds partially blotted 
from view. At Leon it rained heavily, and we 
caught a mere glimpse, from the window, of 
muddy, wind-swept streets and rows of white- 
washed houses. Rolling on through a sodden 
country in the gathering darkness, we passed 
Chinandega, a large and important Indian town; 
and finally, crossing a long bridge, ran along a 
beach upon which rows of ghostly breakers 
were dimly visible, and entered Corinto. We 
picked our way through the mud to the hotel, 
dined, and soon turned in, fatigued by our long 
day's ride. 

When we awoke in the morning, the world 
was bathed in sunshine, and, stepping out upon 
the broad veranda I gazed over the harbor, its 
blue waters ruffled by a breath of wind from 
the sea. A big white bark flying the German 
flag lay near by, and beyond was the " Momo- 
tombo," a small Nicaraguan steamer classed as 
a man-of-war in virtue of two field-pieces 
mounted on her spar deck. Far to the left a 
range of dim blue peaks was barely visible 
against the sky, and to the right, beyond a low 
bare point, the broad Pacific stretched as far as 
eye could reach. Below us was a street run- 
ning parallel to the beach ; it was lined on the 
landward side with neat frame buildings and a 
wooden Government building, containing cus- 
tom house, barracks, and officers' quarters. 



MANAGUA TO CORINTO 279 

Corinto, the chief seaport of Nicaragua, is 
situated near the site of the old town of Realejo, 
whose successor it virtually is. Founded at 
a time when the depredations of buccaneers 
spread terror along the coast, Realejo sought, 
in a sequestered location on the Rio Realejo, 
five miles from the ocean, the inaccessibility 
which is now injurious to it, and which has re- 
sulted in its commercial decay and the growth 
of its rival, Corinto. The latter town is built 
upon a flat, sandy island, producing little but 
grass and cocoanut palms, and contains a popu- 
lation of about twelve hundred. 

A short tour of exploration after breakfast 
satisfied us that there was little of interest in the 
place ; during the remainder of our stay we were 
therefore content to sit upon the hotel veranda 
talking or reading, and to walk occasionally to 
the harbor mouth to bathe in the surf. I devoted 
much time to a study of a new schedule of 
duties which had just gone into effect, and I was 
edified to learn that diamonds might be im- 
ported upon payment of fourteen and a half 
dollars a pound, while pearls were taxed three 
dollars and sixty-three cents a pound, and clocks 
thirty-six cents a pound. 

On the seventh of October, three days after 
we reached Corinto, the Pacific Mail Steam- 
ship " Colon " arrived, and, having provided 
ourselves with the necessary passport to leave 



28o OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the country, we embarked for Panama. It was 
late in the afternoon before the last freight was 
loaded and the anchor weighed. With a hoarse 
whistle of farewell the great steamer moved 
slowly down the channel, past the lighthouse 
which marks the harbor mouth, and out to sea. 
The broad Pacific rocked her on its bosom, the 
evening mists closed in about her, and land was 
lost to sight. The purple hills and sunny plains 
of Nicaragua became a memory of the past ; 
our hardships were all forgotten, our pleasures 
magnified an hundredfold. Around us was 
the sleeping ocean, ahead the Bay of Panama, 
beyond that, home ! 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

GREAT BRITAIN— INTEROCEANIC 
SHIP-CANAL 

Convention between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain for facilitating and protecting the Construction 
of a Ship- Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans, and for other purposes. 

Concluded April 19, 1850. 

Ratification advised by the Senate May 22, 1850. 
Ratified by the President May 23, 1850. 
Ratified by Her Britannic Majesty June 11, 1850. 
Ratifications exchanged July 4, 1850. 
Proclaimed July 5, 1850. 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA 

A PROCLAMATION 

Whereas a Convention between the United States 
of America and Her Britannic Majesty, for facilitating 
and protecting the construction of a Ship-Canal be- 
tween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and for other 
purposes, was concluded and signed at Washington, 
on the nineteenth day of April last, which Conven- 
tion is, word for word, as follows : 

Convention between the United States of America and Her 
Britannic Majesty. 
The United States of America and Her Britannic Majesty, 
being desirous of consolidating the relations of amity which 



284 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

so happily subsist between them, by setting forth and fixing 
in a convention their views and intentions with reference to 
any means of communication by Ship-Canal which may be 
constructed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by the 
way of the river San Juan de Nicaragua, and either or both 
of the lakes of Nicaragua or Managua, to any port or place 
on the Pacific ocean ; the President of the United States 
has conferred full powers on John M. Clayton, Secretary of 
State of the United States ; and Her Britannic Majesty on 
the Right Honorable Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, a Member 
of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, Knight 
Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, and 
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Her 
Britannic Majesty to the United States, for the aforesaid 
purpose ; and the said plenipotentiaries having exchanged 
their full powers, which were found to be in proper form, 
have agreed to the following articles : 

Article I. 

The Governments of the United States and Great Britain 
hereby declare, that neither the one nor the other will ever 
obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the 
said Ship-Canal; agreeing, that neither will ever erect or 
maintain any fortifications commanding the same, or in the 
vicinity thereof, or occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume 
or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the 
Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America ; nor will 
either make use of any protection which either affords or may 
afford, or any alliance which either has or may have, to or 
with any State or People, for the purpose of erecting or 
maintaining any such fortifications, or of occupying, fortify- 
ing, or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito 
coast, or any part of Central America, or of assuming or 
exercising dominion over the same ; nor will the United 
States or Great Britain take advantage of any intimacy, or 
use any alliance, connexion or influence that either may pos- 
sess with any State or Government through whose territory 



APPENDIX 285 

the said canal may pass, for the purpose of acquiring or 
holding, directly or indirectly, for the citizens or subjects of 
the one, any rights or advantages in regard to commerce or 
navigation through the said canal, which shall not be offered 
on the same terms to the citizens or subjects of the other. 

Article II. 

Vessels of the United States or Great Britain, traversing 
the said canal, shall, in case of war between the contracting 
parties, be exempted from blockade, detention or capture, 
by either of the belligerents ; and this provision shall extend 
to such a distance from the two ends of the said canal, as 
may hereafter be found expedient to establish. 

Article III. 

In order to secure the construction of the said canal, the 
contracting parties engage, that if any such canal shall be 
undertaken upon fair and equitable terms by any parties 
having the authority of the local government or governments, 
through whose territory the same may pass, then the persons 
employed in making the said canal, and their property used, 
or to be used, for that object, shall be protected, from the 
commencement of the said canal to its completion, by 
the Governments of the United States and Great Britain, 
from unjust detention, confiscation, seizure or any violence 
whatsoever. 

Article IV. 

The contracting parties will use whatever influence they 
respectively exercise, with any State, States or Governments 
possessing, or claiming to possess, any jurisdiction or right 
over the territory which the said canal shall traverse, or which 
shall be near the waters applicable thereto, in order to induce 
such States or Governments to facilitate the construction of 
the said canal by every means in their power. And further- 
more, the United States and Great Britain agree to use their 
good offices, wherever or however it may be most expedient, 



286 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

in order to procure the establishment of two free ports, one 
at each end of the said canal. 

Article V. 

The contracting parties further engage, that when the said 
canal shall have been completed, they will protect it from 
interruption, seizure or unjust confiscation, and that they 
will guarantee the neutrality thereof, so that the said canal 
may forever be open and free, and the capital invested there- 
in, secure. Nevertheless, the Governments of the United 
States and Great Britain, in according their protection to the 
construction of the said canal, and guaranteeing its neutrality 
and security when completed, always understand that this 
protection and guarantee are granted conditionally, and may 
be withdrawn by both governments, or either government, if 
both governments, or either government, should deem that 
the persons or company undertaking or managing the same 
adopt or establish such regulations concerning the trafHc 
thereupon, as are contrary to the spirit and intention of this 
Convention, either by making unfair discriminations in favor 
of the commerce of one of the contracting parties over the 
commerce of the other, or by imposing oppressive exactions 
or unreasonable tolls upon passengers, vessels, goods, wares, 
merchandise or other articles. Neither party, however, shall 
withdraw the aforesaid protection and guarantee without first 
giving six months' notice to the other. 

Article VI. 

The contracting parties in this Convention engage to 
invite every State with which both or either have friendly 
intercourse, to enter into stipulations with them similar to 
those which they have entered into with each other ; to the 
end, that all other States may share in the honor and advan- 
tage of having contributed to a work of such general interest 
and importance as the canal herein contemplated. And the 
contracting parties likewise agree, that each shall enter into 
treaty stipulations with such of the Central American States, 



APPENDIX 287 

as they may deem advisable, for the purpose of more effec- 
tually carrying out the great design of this Convention, 
namely, that of constructing and maintaining the said canal 
as a ship-communication between the two oceans for the 
benefit of mankind, on equal terms to all, and of protecting 
the same ; and they also agree, that the good offices of 
either shall be employed, when requested by the other, in 
aiding and assisting the negotiation of such treaty stipula- 
tions ; and should any differences arise as to right or prop- 
erty over the territory through which the said canal shall pass 
between the States or Governments of Central America, and 
such differfences should in any way impede or obstruct the 
execution of the said canal, the Governments of the United 
States and Great Britain will use their good offices to settle 
such differences in the manner best suited to promote the 
interests of the said canal, and to strengthen the bonds of 
friendship and aUiance which exist between the contracting 
parties. 

Article VII. 

It being desirable that no time should be unnecessarily 
lost in commencing and constructing the said canal, the 
Governments of the United States and Great Britain deter- 
mine to give their support and encouragement to such per- 
sons or company as may first offer to commence the same, 
with the necessary capital, the consent of the local authori- 
ties, and on such principles as accord with the spirit and 
intention of this Convention ; and if any persons or com- 
pany should already have, with any State through which the 
proposed Ship-Canal may pass, a contract for the construc- 
tion of such a canal as that specified in this Convention, to 
the stipulations of which contract neither of the contracting 
parties in this Convention have any just cause to object ; 
and the said persons or company shall, moreover, have made 
preparations, and expended time, money, and trouble, on the 
faith of such contract, it is hereby agreed, that such persons 
or company shall have a priority of claim, over every other 
person, persons, or company, to the protection of the 



288 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

Governments of the United States and Great Britain, and 
be allowed a year, from the date of the exchange of the 
ratifications of this Convention, for concluding their arrange- 
ments, and presenting evidence of sufficient capital sub- 
scribed to accomplish the contemplated undertaking ; it 
being understood that if, at the expiration of the aforesaid 
period, such persons or company be not able to commence 
and carry out the proposed enterprise, then the Governments 
of the United States and Great Britain shall be free to afford 
their protection to any other persons or company that shall 
be prepared to commence and proceed with the construc- 
tion of the canal in question. 

Article VIII. 

The Governments of the United States and Great Britain 
having not only desired, in entering into this convention, to 
accompHsh a particular object, but also to establish a gen- 
eral principle, they hereby agree to extend their protection, 
by treaty stipulations, to any other practicable communica- 
tions, whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus which 
connects North and South America ; and especially to the 
interoceanic communications, should the same prove to be 
practicable, whether by canal or railway, which are now pro- 
posed to be established by the way of Tehuantepec or Pan- 
ama. In granting, however, their joint protection to any 
such canals or railways as are by this article specified, it is 
always understood by the United States and Great Britain 
that the parties constructing or owning the same shall impose 
no other charges or conditions of trafific thereupon than the 
aforesaid governments shall approve of, as just and equitable; 
and that the same canals or railways, being open to the citi- 
zens and subjects of the United States and Great Britain on 
equal terms, shall also be open on like terms to the citizens 
and subjects of every other State which is wiUing to grant 
thereto such protection as the United States and Great Brit- 
ain engage to afford. 



APPENDIX 289 

Article IX. 
The ratifications of this Convention shall be exchanged at 
Washington within six months from this day, or sooner if 

possible. 

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries have 
signed this Convention, and have hereunto afi&xed our seals. 
Done at Washington, the nineteenth day of April, Anno 
Domini one thousand eight hundred and fifty. 

JOHN M. CLAYTON, [l.s.] 

HENRY LYTTON BULWER. [l.s.] 

And whereas the said Convention has been duly 
ratified on both parts, and the respective ratifications 
of the same were exchanged at Washington, on the 
fourth instant, by John M. Clayton, Secretary of State 
of the United States, and the Right Honorable Sir 
Henry Lytton Bulwer, Envoy Extraordinary and Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary of Her Britannic Majesty, on the 
part of their respective Governments : 

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Zachary Taylor, 
President of the United States of America, have caused 
the said Convention to be made public, to the end 
that the same, and every clause and article thereof, 
may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the 
United States and the citizens thereof. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, 
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
Done at the city of Washington, this fifth day of 
July, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
[l. S.] eight hundred and fifty, and of the Indepen- 
dence of the United States the seventy-fifth. 

Z. TAYLOR. 

By the President : 
J. M. Clayton, 

Secretary of State. 

19 



290 OCEAN TO OCEAN 



INTEROCEANIC CANAL 

Message from the President of the United States, trans- 
mitting a convention between the United States and 
Great Britain, to facilitate the construction of a ship- 
canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans ^ 
signed at Washington, November i8, 1901. 

December 4, 1901. — Read ; treaty read the first time and referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Relations and, together with the message, 
ordered to be printed in confidence for the use of the Senate. 

December 9, 1901. — Injunction of secrecy removed. 

To the Senate: 

I transmit, for the advice and consent of the Senate, 
to its ratification, a convention signed November 18, 
1901, by the respective Plenipotentiaries of the United 
States and Great Britain to facilitate the construction 
of a ship canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans by whatever route may be considered expedi- 
ent, and to that end to remove any objection which 
may arise out of the convention of April 19, 1850, 
commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, to the 
construction of such canal under the auspices of the 
Government of the United States, without impairing 
the " general principle " of neutralization estabhshed 
in Article VIII. of that convention. 

I also inclose a report from the Secretary of State, 
submitting the convention for my consideration. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

WmxE House, 

Washington, December 4, 1901. 



APPENDIX 291 

The President: 

I submit for your consideration and for transmission 
to the Senate, should you deem it proper to do so, 
with a view to obtaining the advice and consent of that 
body to its ratification, a convention signed Novem- 
ber 18, 1901, by the respective Plenipotentiaries of 
the United States and Great Britain to facihtate the 
construction of a ship canal to connect the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans by whatever route may be consid- 
ered expedient, and to that end to remove any objec- 
tion which may arise out of the convention of April 
19, 1850, commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 
to the construction of such canal under the auspices 
of the Government of the United States, without im- 
pairing the " general principle " of neutralization 
established in Article VIII. of that convention. 

Respectfully submitted. 

John Hay. 

Department of State, 

Washington, December S, 1901. 

The United States of America and His Majesty Edward 
the Seventh, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, 
and Emperor of India, being desirous to facilitate the con- 
struction of a ship canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans, by whatever route may be considered expedient, and 
to that end to remove any objection which may arise out of 
the Convention of the 19th April, 1850, commonly called 
the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, to the construction of such canal 
under the auspices of the Government of the United States, 
without impairing the "general principle" of neutralization 
established in Article VIII. of that Convention, have for that 
purpose appointed as their Plenipotentiaries : 

The President of the United States, John Hay, Secretary 
of State of the United States of America ; 



292 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

And His Majesty Edward the Seventh, of the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British 
Dominions beyond the Seas, King, and Emperor of India, the 
Right Honourable Lord Pauncefote, G. C. B., G. C. M. G., 
His Majest}''s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipoten- 
tiary to the United States ; 

Who, having communicated to each other their fuU powers 
which were found to be in due and proper form, have agreed 
upon the following Articles : 

Article I. 

The High Contracting Parties agree that the present 
Treaty shall supersede the afore-mentioned Convention of 
the 19th April, 1850. 

Article li- 
lt is agreed that the canal may be constructed under the 
auspices of the Government of the United States either di- 
rectly at its own cost, or by gift or loan of money to individ- 
uals or Corporations, or through subscription to or pturchase 
of stock or shares, and that, subject to the provisions of the 
present Treaty, the said Government shall have and enjoy 
all the rights incident to such construction, as weU as the 
exclusive right of providing for the regulation and manage- 
ment of the canal. 

Article III. 

The United States adopts, as the basis of the neutralization 
of such ship canal, the following Rules, substantially as em- 
bodied in the Convention of Constantinople, signed the 28th 
October, 1888, for the free navigation of the Suez Canal, 
that is to say : 

I. The canal shall be free and open to the vessels of com- 
merce and of war of all nations observing these Rules, on 
terms of entire equalit)', so that there shall be no discrimina- 
tion against any such nation, or its citizens or subjects, in 
respect of the conditions or charges of traflfic, or otherwise. 



APPENDIX 293 

Such conditions and charges of traffic shall be just and 
equitable. 

2. The canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any right 
of war be exercised nor any act of hostility be committed 
within it. The United States, however, shall be at Hberty 
to maintain such military police along the canal as may be 
necessary to protect it against lawlessness and disorder. 

3. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not revictual nor 
take any stores in the canal except so far as may be strictly 
necessary ; and the transit of such vessels through the canal 
shall be effected with the least possible delay in accordance 
with the Regulations in force, and with only such intermission 
as may result from the necessities of the service. 

Prizes shall be in all respects subject to the same rules as 
vessels of war of the belligerents. 

4. No belligerent shall embark or disembark troops, muni- 
tions of war, or warlike materials in the canal, except in case 
of accidental hindrance of the transit, and in such case the 
transit shall be resumed with all possible dispatch. 

5. The provisions of this Article shall apply to waters 
adjacent to the canal, within 3 marine miles of either end. 
Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not remain in such wa- 
ters longer than twenty-four hours at any one time, except in 
case of distress, and in such case shall depart as soon as pos- 
sible ; but a vessel of war of one beUigerent shall not depart 
within twenty -four hours from the departure of a vessel of war 
of the other belligerent. 

6. The plant, establishments, buildings, and all works nec- 
essary to the construction, maintenance, and operation of the 
canal shall be deemed to be part thereof, for the purposes of 
this Treaty, and in time of war, as in time of peace, shall en- 
joy complete immunity from attack or injury by belligerents, 
and from acts calculated to impair their usefulness as part of 
the canal. 

Article IV. 

It is agreed that no change of territorial sovereignty or of in- 
ternational relations of the country or countries traversed by 



294 OCEAN TO OCEAN 

the before-mentioned canal shall affect the general principle 
of neutralization or the obligation of the High Contracting 
Parties under the present Treaty. 

Article V. 

The present Treaty shall be ratified by the President of 
the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate thereof, and by His Britannic Majesty ; and the rati- 
fications shall be exchanged at Washington or at London at 
the earliest possible time within six months from the date 
hereof. 

In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have 
signed this Treaty and hereunto affixed their seals. 

Done in duplicate at Washington, the i8th day of Novem- 
ber, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred 
and one. 

John Hay. [seal.] 
Pauncefote. [seal.] 



INDEX 



INDEX 



"Alarm," English warship, 52, 53 

American Atlantic and Pacific Ship- 
Canal Co., 55,88 

" American Phalanx," 245 

Ammen, Commodore Daniel, 90 ; at- 
tends International Scientific Con- 
gress, 92 

Anderson, Col., captures Castillo for 
Walker, 268 

Animal life, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 
161, 182, 183, 1S4 

Ants, 164-166, 183, 184 

Aquachahan, San Salvador, captured 
by Carrera, 234 

Arce, General, enters Leon, 216 ; made 
President of Republic of Central 
America, 218 ; goes over to Serviles, 
218; conquers Guatemala, 219; flees 
to Mexico, 222 ; invades Guatemala, 
227 

Archbishop of Guatemala, struggle 
with Liberals, 217 

Arias, Pedro de, 205 

Avila, Gil Gonzales de, explores Nica- 
ragua, 203; conquers Nicaragua, 
203-205 

Aycinena, Mariano, made Servile Gov- 
ernor of Guatemala, 219 

Aztecs, 197, 213 

Bailey, John, surveys Canal route 

for South America, 8y 
Balas rapids, 18 
Barrundia, Don Jose, description of 

Guatemala in hands of the Indians, 

234 
Barrundia, Jose, Governor of Guate- 
mala, overthrown by Serviles, 219; 
made President of Republic of Cen- 
tral America, 222 



Bartola Island, 126 

Battle of Sabina Grande, 220 

Battle of Santa Ana, 221 

Bay Islands, landing by buccaneers, 
41 ; English repulsed from, 41 ; 
claimed by English, 47; not af- 
fected by Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 
59; Colony of the Bay Islands pro- 
claimed, 61 

Beef cattle, 160 

Belize, landing by buccaneers, 41 ; at- 
tacked by Spanish, 44 ; govern- 
ment by settlers, 45, 46 ; Spanish 
expedition against, 46 ; affected 
by Treaty of Versailles, 47 ; self- 
government established, 50 ; name 
changed to British Honduras, 50 ; 
extent, 5 1 ; neighboring territory 
retained by English, 226 

Belly, Felix, 89 

Bishop of Leon opposes Republic of 
Central America, 216 

Black River, colony at mouth of, 44 

Blaine, Secretary, letter to American 
Ministers concerning Canal, 70; 
argues for modification of Clayton- 
Bulwer Treaty, 71 

Blewfields, 49; occupied by Nicaraguan 
troops, 71 

Blewfields Lagoon, 41 

Borland, Mr., sent to Nicaragua as 
agent, 62 ; protects Capt. Smith, 
63 ; sails north, 63 

Boscha, Col., garrisons Rivas, 246 ; 
orders American prisoners burned 
alive, 249 

British Honduras. See Belize. 

Brito 
harbor plans, 116-118 

possibilities examined, 171 



298 



INDEX 



Brito (co?itinued) — 

Headland, character of, iS8 
character of Rio Grande Valley 

near, 179, 187 
photographing trip to, 186-188 

Brown's, Mr., party, 132 

Buccaneers, depredations of, 40, 42; 
recognized as British subjects, 42 

Buchanan, Mr., sent to England, 62 ; 
made President U. S., 66; asks 
Senate to abrogate Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty, 68 

Buen Retire, in Canal plans, 98, 108 

Bull's hydrographic camp, 175 

Billow, Baron von, leads Costa Ricans 
against Nicaragua, 255 ; victorious, 
256 ; establishes headquarters at 
Rivas, 25S 

Bulwer, Sir Henry, sent as special 
envoy to U. S., 57; recommenda- 
tions to Lord Palmerston, 57; con- 
cludes treaty, 58; correspondence 
with Clayton, 59, 227 

Bumaby, Admiral, 46 

Burr, William H., C. E., 96 

Butterflies, 184, 185 

Cabanas, General, succeeds Morazan, 
237; retires to San Salvador, 238; 
President of Honduras, 239 

Cacao plantations, 1S4 

Calabash trees, 144 

Canas, General, succeeds Gen. Mora 
at head of Costa Ricans at Rivas, 
259; leads troops to Guanecaste, 
259; leads Costa Ricans at Virgin 
Bay, 262 ; defeated by Walker, 262 
• Caiias Gordas Creek, 191 

Cape Gracias i. Dios, 41 

Carib Indians, landed on Bay Islands, 
48 

Carillo, governor of Costa Rica, 235, 

237 

Carrera, Rafael, leads riot at Santa 
Rosa, 231 ; captures Guatemala 
City, 232; flees, 234; captures Santa 
Ana and Aquachahan, 234; de- 
feated at Guatemala, 234; made 
commander of Mita, 234; seizes 
Guatemala, 235, 236, 237 

Carretas, 138, 139 

Carter, Capt. Oberlin M., 95 



Cascabel Creek, 191 

Castellon, Don Francisco de, 87; 

leader of Liberals in Nicaragua, 238 ; 

drives out Chamorro, 239 ; contracts 

for American recruits, 244 ; welcomes 

Walker, 245 ; death, 249 
Castillo, 75 

custom-house, 123 

description, 124 

historical : attacked by English, 46, 
124-128 ; seized by Col. Anderson 
for Walker, 268 

in proposed canal plans, 98, 100 

rapids, 18 
Castillo, Alfredo, added to pay-roll, 

143 

Castillo, Fray Bias de, description of 
volcano of Masaya, 273-275 

Castle of Omoa, 227 

Caziques, 198 

Central America, discovery and set- 
tlement, 40; appeal to U. S., 50; 
protests against English, 50, 52; 
early political history, 212-239; Re- 
public of Central America formed, 
215 

Chamorro, Don Fruto, President of 
Nicaragua, 23S; banishes Castellon, 
239; death, 239 

Charles I., King, 41 

Charles II., King, sovereignty ac- 
knowledged, 43 

Chatfield, Mr., 51, 52, 56, 60 

Chiapas, incorporated into Mexico, 215 

Chief Engineer, 26, 36 

Chief of Commissary, 36 

Childs, Col. O. W., sent to Nicaragua, 
88; plans for Canal route, 89, 90, 

97-99 
Chinandega, 208; engineering party 

passes through, 278 
Church favors Serviles, 216, 217, 218 
Clarence, Mosquito chief, 71 
Clarendon, Lord, 62 
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 56 

abrogation agitated, 65 

advantages to English, 59 

contents, 58 

discussion in Senate, 61 

interpretation by Lord Clarendon, 62 

modification necessary, 70 

signed, 48 



INDEX 



299 



Clayton- Bulwer Treaty {continued) — 
text, 2S3-289 
violated by English, 227 
Clayton, Secretary of State, opposed 
by Senate, 56; conference with 
British envoy, 57; concludes treaty, 
58; concessions to Bulwer, 59; ac- 
cused of betraying his country, 61 ; 
concealed letter to Bulwer, 227 
Cock-fight, 210, 211 
Coffee, 160 
Cole, Byron, serves as Walker's agent, 

244 
Cole, Dr., 134, 151 
"Colon," Pacific Mail Steamer, 

Corinto to Panama, 277, 280 
Colony of the Bay Islands proclaimed, 

61 
Comalcaqua Creek, 191 
Compania de Transito de Nicaragua. 

See Nicaragua Transit Co. 
Conchuda, in proposed Canal plans, 

112, 113 
Cordillera de los Marabios, 276, 277 
Cordilleras, 19 

Cordova, Francisco Hernando de, 205 
Corinto, description, 278, 279 
Corn, 160 

Corral, Don Ponciano, commands 
Servile forces in Nicaragua, 239; 
succeeds Guardiola as leader, 249; 
opposes Walker at Rivas, 249; con- 
fers with Walker, 251, 252; made 
Secretary of War, 252; betrays 
Walker, 252; shot, 252 
Costa Rica, attacks Nicaragua, 65; 
joins Republic of Central America, 
215; opposes power of Church, 
217; attempt to restore Spanish 
rule, 218; withdraws from Con- 
federation, 224 ; returns to it, 224 ; 
declares independence, 228 ; domes- 
tic discord, 229; Carillo as Gover- 
nor, 235, 237; declares war against 
Nicaragua, 255 ; troops victorious, 
256; troops seize Virgin Bay, 257; 
troops establish themselves at Rivas, 
258; attacked by Walker, 258; vic- 
torious, 258; pestilence, 258; de- 
feated by Walker at Virgin Bay, 
262; seize Transit Co.' s steamers, 
266; capture San Juan valley, 266 



Costa Rican mountains, 79 i 

Crocker, Major, accompanies Walkef 

to Nicaragua, 245 
Crossman, Commander, 32, 90 
"Cyane," American sloop-of-war, 63 



Dalling, Gen. Sir John, plans at- 
tack on Castillo, 125 

Davis brothers join engineering party, 
153 

Davis, Capt. C. H. H., 66; demands 
surrender of Walker, 268 

Davis, F. H., 133, 136 

De Boulbon, 241 

Delegado, Dr., made Bishop of 
Guatemala, 217 

De Lesseps, creates International 
Scientific Congress, 91 

Despard, Captain, 128 

Diriangan, ancient chief, 204 

Dominguez, incites Servile insurrec- 
tion in Honduras, 227 

Doubleday, Captain, meets Walker, 

245 
Downing's Hotel, Granada, 202, 203 

Dutch Canal Co., 87 

Eads Ship Railway Co. lobby 
thwarts Canal projects, 92 

Earthquake tremblor, 166 

El Carmen, encampment at, 188-193 

" El '93," lake steamer, 130, 195, 196 

El Pavon, encampment at, 158-162 

Emory, filibuster, 242 

Emperor of Austria, 71 

Endicott, M. T., C. E., 95 

Engineering party, trip from Grey- 
town to Rivas, 119-137 ; encamp- 
ment at San Pablo, 139-146 ; at 
Espinal, 146, 147 ; at Paraiso, 153- 
158; at El Pavon, 158-162 ; char- 
acter of workmen, 157 ; encamp- 
ment at La Flor, 163-177 ; at Tola, 
180-188 ; at El Carmen, 1S8-193 ; 
difficulty of getting supplies, 189- 
191 ; return to Rivas, 192 ; stay in 
Rivas, 194, 195 ; trip from Rivas 
to Granada, 196, 202 ; stay at 
Granada, 202, 203, 209-211; trip 
from Granada to Managua, 271-275; 
stay at Managua, 275 ; Managua to 
Corinto, 275-278 ; at Corinto, 278- 
280 ; Corinto to Panama, 280 



^oo 



INDEX 



English, claims on Mosquito Shore, 
\ 41-72 ; claims on Belize and Bay 
Islands, 41, 48 ; incursions up San 
Juan River, 42 ; first foothold in 
Jamaica, 42 ; treaties with Spain, 
42, 44, 45, 47 ; war with Spain, 43, 
44, 46, 47 ; capture Castillo, 46 ; 
seize Greytown, 50, 52, 53 ; attempt 
to gain western terminus of Canal, 
55; seize Tigre Island, 56; con- 
clude Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with 
United States, 58 ; advantages 
from treaty, 59 ; land marines at 
Greytown, 60 ; difference with 
United States over port dues, 60 ; 
position on Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 
62 ; conquer filibusters at Truxillo, 
66 ; consider new agreement with 
United States, 67, 68 ; send Sir 
William Ouseley to Central America, 
68 ; make agreements with Guate- 
mala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, 
68 ; make Greytown free port, 69 ; 
send warships to Blewfields, 71 ; 
compels Nicaragua to submit to ar- 
bitration, 71 ; justified, 71 ; estab- 
lish provisional government on 
Mosquito Coast, 72 ; retain ter- 
ritory around Belize, 226 ; seize 
Ruatan, 226 ; refuse treaty with 
Republic of Central America, 226 ; 
repudiate Kinney's grant, 253 ; aid 
Costa Rica against Nicaragua, 255 ; 
agree to Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 

73 
Ernst, Lieut.-Col. Oswald H., 96 
Espinal, encampment at, 146, 147 
Estrada, Don Jose Maria, succeeds 
Chamorro, 239 ; recognized as Ser- 
vile President, 252 
Eyre-Cragin Syndicate, 96 

Fiesta, 210 

Filibusters. See Walker, William 
Flores, Cerilio, assassinated, 219 
Forest growth, 158, 159, 162, 179, 

180 
French, Parker H., filibuster, attacks 
San Carlos, 251 ; refused recogni- 
tion as Minister to United States, 
254, 255 
Fruits, 160 



Gage, Thomas, visit to Nicaragua in 

1665, 207, 208 
George Frederick, king of Mosquito 

Coast, 48 
George Frederick II., king of Mos- 
quito Coast, 49 
Granada 

cock-fight, 210, 211 

description, 209, 210; in 1665, 207, 

20S 
fiesta, 210 

historical: founded, 205 ; early attacks 
by pirates, 208 ; attacked by Eng- 
lish, 42, 46, 53; rebels against 
Serviles, 214; attacked by Walker, 
250; conference between Walker 
and Corral, 251; entered by Ser- 
vile troops under Zavala, 261 ; 
held by Walker, 262; abandoned 
by Walker, 263; destruction by 
filibusters, 264 
population, 210 
stay at, 202, 203, 209-211 
Grant, Gen., 92; as President, ap- 
points Canal Commission, 69; fail- 
ure of Grant and Ward, 93 
Granville, Lord, 60 
Grey, Governor Sir Charles, 53 
Greytown (San Juan del Norte) 
commerce, 39 
delta, 37 
description, 38 
harbor 

condition at present, 106; 1850- 

1852, 99 
destruction, 100 
improvements begun, 93, 94 
proposed restoration, 100, 114- 
116 
historical: Spanish port of entry, 
47 ; seized by English, 50, 52, 
238; present name given, 52; 
English commandant installed, 
53; English marines landed, 60; 
provisional American government 
established, 63; becomes free 
port, 69 
lagoon, 34, 35, 37 
population, 36 
situation, 37 
Guardiola, leads Serviles against 
Walker, 249; succeeded by Corral, 



INDEX 



30 1 



249; prepares to march against 
Leon, 256 

Guarunio Creek, 191 

Guatemala, expedition against English 
at Castillo, 46; attack on Belize, 4S; 
proclaims independence, 213, 214; 
organized as republic, 214; annexed 
to Mexico, 214 ; joins Republic of 
Central America, 215 ; conquered by 
Serviles under Gen. Arce, 219; 
conquered by Liberals under Mor- 
azan, 222 ; invaded by Serviles 
under Arce, 227 ; insurrection, 231, 

232 ; attacked by Morazan, 232 ; 
attacked by Indians under Carrera, 

233 \ Serviles welcome Carrera, 235 ; 
withdraws from Confederacy, 236 ; 
reincorporates Los Altos, 236 ; at- 
tacked by Morazan, 236; unites 
with Honduras and San Salvador 
against Walker, 260 (see Rivas, 
Don Patricio) 

Gtiegues, 199 
Guiscoyal Creek, 145, 178 
Gulf of Fonseca, 55 
Guzman, Ramon, incites Servile in- 
surrection in Honduras, 227 

Rains, Col. Peter C, 95, 96 

Hanus', Lieut., party. 132 

Harden, Mr., 166; trj to Brito, 1S6- 
1S8 

Hatfield, Commander o 

Haupt, Lewis M., 95, )6 

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, "j^ ; text, 290- 
294 

Henningsen, filibuster, goes with 
Walker to Virgin Bay, 262 ; de- 
stroys Granada, 264 ; retreats to 
Ometepe, 265 

Hise, Mr., sent to Central America as 
special agent, 54 ; compact uncon- 
firmed, 54, 56 ; compact abandoned, 

57 

Hodgson, Robert, proclaims protecto- 
rate, 44; raid on San Juan, 45; 
advocates Canal, 86 

*' Hollenbeck," river steamer, 128 

HoUins, Captain, bombards Grey- 
town, 63 

Honduras, independent of Spain, 49; 
treaty with United States, 55; not 



affected by Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 
59, 61; receives nominal control of 
Bay Islands and Mosquito Reserva- 
tion, 68; sends troops to Mosquito 
Coast, 71 ; joins Republic of Central 
America, 215; Serviles rise, 2ig, 
220; Liberals restored to power, 
222 ; English seize island of Ruatan, 
226; Servile insurrection, 227; de- 
clares independence, 228; collision 
with Morazan, 235 ; declares inde- 
pendence again, 235 ; troops invade 
Nicaragua, 23S; Cabanas made 
President, 239 ; Honduras unites 
with Guatemala and San Salvador 
against Walker, 260 (see Rivas, 
Don Patricio) ; troops attack Walker 
at Truxillo, 269; court-martial 
Walker, 269 ; condemn him to 
death, 270 
Honduras Interoceanic Railway Co., 

67 
Hornsby, General, makes unsuccessful 

attempt against Cafias at Virgin 

Bay, 262 
Hotels, 177 

Houses in ancient times, 199 
Humboldt, Alexander von, advocates 

Canal, 86 
Humphreys, General A. A., 89 

Idols, 196, 197 

Iguanas, 162 

India, dams in, 104, 105 

Indian outbreaks in Republic of Cen- 
tral America, 228, 230, 232 

Indigo, 160 

Insect and other pests, 140, 141, 155, 
161, 162 

International Scientific Congress ad- 
vocates Panama route, 91, 92 

Interoceanic Canal Commission, 89 ; 
expedition to Nicaragua, 90 ; recom- 
mends Lull's route, 90 

Isthmian Canal Commission, ap- 
pointed, 96 ; visit at San Pablo, 
145, 146; journey delayed by revo- 
lution, 153 
plans, no-iiS 
cost, 114 

dam at eastern end, 112 
depth, III 



302 



INDEX 



Isthmian Canal Commission {cont.) — 

harbor works, 114-118 

locks, 112, 113 
Itiirbide, 214, 215 

Jacques, Colonel, sent by Walker 
to Virgin Bay, 263 

Jamaica, negroes, 36 ; island taken by 
English, 42 ; government petitioned 
by Mosquito king, 43; sends rein- 
forcements to Castillo, 46 

Jeremy, Mosquito king, 43 

Jerez, candidate for Presidency of 
Nicaragua, 259 

Jetties, 114-117 

Johnson, Prof. Emory R., 96 

Jolly, Captain, annexes Ruatan to 
Belize, 226 

Journey from New York to Greytown, 
27-34 

" Kearsarge " wrecked, 71 

Kewen, made Lieut. -Colonel, 245 

Key West, Florida, 29, 30 

Kinney, Henry L., expedition to Ni- 
caraguaj 253; driven from Eastern 
Nicaragua, 64 ; " colonists " join 
Walker, 253 

La Condamine advocates Nicaragua 

Canal, 87 
La Fe, 34, 35 
La Flor Hills, 159 

dam, proposed, 102, 105, 108, 179 

encampment at, 163-177 

gap, 178 
Lake Managua, 17, 74 
Lake Nicaragua, 17 

Canal plans, as affected by, 98, 102, 
103, 107, 109, 113 

controlling feature of Canal, 97 

discharge 
maximum, 108 

report on, by Nicaragua Canal 
Commission, 103, 104 

early formation, 77-80 

islands, 132 

journey on, 132, 133 

sharks, 78 

size, 79 
Lake Silico, as affected by Canal 

plans, 107 



Lake Tiscapa, 275 

Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapas, de- 
scription of Nicaragua, 205 

Lawrence, Minister, 57 

Lee, Mr., advocates Canal, 86 

Leon, founded, 205 ; attacked by 
pirates, 20S ; English attempt on, 
46 ; rebels against Serviles, 215 ; 
civil war, 216, 217 ; city burned, 
216 ; opposes Gen. Arce, 220 ; 
battle at, 238 ; seized by allied 
troops under Rivas, 260 ; engineer- 
ing party passes through, 278 

Liberals vs. Serviles, 214-239, 244-270 

Loch, Captain, victory over Nicarag- 
uans, 53 ; treaty, 60 

Lockridge, Colonel, attacks Costa Ri- 
cans at mouth of Sarapiqui, 266 

Locks, 98, 99, 100, 102, 106, 107, 109, 
112, 113 

Los Altos, added to Confederation, 
235 ; insurrection, 236 ; reincorpor- 
ated with Guatemala, 236 

Louis Napoleon advocates Nicaragua 
Canal, 88 

Louis Philippe advocates Panama 
Canal, 87 

Ludlow, Lieut. -Colonel Wm., 94 

Lull, Commander, project for canal, 
90, 99, 100 

McClellan, General, 92 
McDonald, Colonel, regent of Mos- 

quitoland, 49 ; occupies Ruatan, 50 ; 

recalled, 51 
MacGregor, Sir John, land-grant, 49 
Machuca Rapids, 18 

mail station, 123 

proposed dam and lock, 109 
McKinley, President, appoints Nica- 
ragua Canal Commission, 95 
Madera 

altitude, 132 

description, 196 

volcanic action, 80 
Malespin, governs San Salvador, 238 
Managua, description, 275 
Marcy, Secretary, action on Nicarag- 

uan Minister, 64, 65 ; recognizes 

Nicaraguan government, 260 
Maritime Canal Co. of Nicaragua 

dam planned in La Flor Hills, 179 



INDEX 



303 



Maritime Canal Commission {cont.) — 
formation, 93 ; concession expires, 

96 
harbor works, proposed, 116 
high level line, loi 
plans for Canal, 102-106 
Markham, Colonel, left by Walker to 

hold Virgin Bay, 263 
Martinez, General, with Serviles, de- 
feats Leonese, 250 
Masaya 
description, 271 

historical : seized by allied troops 
under Rivas, 260; attacked by 
Walker, 260; again attacked by 
Walker, 263; allied troops con- 
centrated here, 265 
lake, 272 

volcanic action in, 80 
volcano, 272-275 
Matagalpa hills, 276 
Menocal, A. G., C. E., U. S. N., 90 ; 
attends International Scientific Con- 
gress, 92 ; sent to Nicaragua, 92 ; sent 
a second time, 93 ; plans for Canal, 
100-106; visit to San Pablo, 145 
Mexico, monarchy established, 214 ; 
incorporates Chiapas, 215; downfall 
of monarchy, 215 
Miller, Hon. Warner, makes inspec- 
tion tour, 94 
Mombacho, volcanic action in, 80 
Momotombito, 277 
Momotombo 

description, 276, 277 
volcanic action, 80 
Monkeys, 156, 157 
Monroe Doctrine, 53 
Mora, President, massacres American 
prisoners, 256 ; establishes head- 
quarters at Rivas, 258 ; flees from 
pestDence, 259 ; succeeded by Gen. 
Canas, 259 
Morazan, Francisco, made Governor 
of Honduras, 220; leads Liberals 
against Gen. Arce, 220, 221 ; seizes 
heads of Catholic Church, 223, 224; 
advises treaty with England, 226 ; as- 
sumes executive power, 228 ; attacks 
Serviles in Guatemala, 232 ; opposes 
disloyal states, 235 ; attacks Guate- 
mala, 236 ; flees, 236 ; returns to 



San Salvador, 237; becomes Gov- 
ernor of Costa Rica, 237; captured 
and shot, 237 

Morison, George S., 96 

Moscoes. See Mosquito 

Mosquito Coast, Indians, 23, 36, 41, 
42 ; Reservation, 36, 37 ; discovery 
and settlement by Spanish, 40 ; 
British claims, 40, 43 ; native rule*?, 
42, 43, 48, 49^ 253; British pro- 
tectorate established, 43, 44, 51, 52; 
attached to Jamaica as dependency, 
45 ; Indians resist Spanish, 47 ; con- 
nected with Belize, 49; Council of 
1S47, 52 ; not affected by Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty, 59 ; government re- 
linquished to Indians and negroes, 
69, 71 ; provisional government 
established, 72 ; incorporated in 
Nicaragua, 72 ; dissatisfied with 
government, 72 ; connection with 
attack on Castillo, 125 ; ancestry of 
Indians on East Coast, 197 

Munoz, General Jose Trinidad, com- 
mands Liberal troops in Nicaragua, 
239 

Napoleon's Canal route, 88 
Nelson, Captain (Lord), attack on 

Castillo, 124-128 
New York, engineering party leaves, 26 
" Newport," gunboat, 26, 27; jour- 
ney on, 27-33 
Nicaragua 
ancient times, in 

character of people, 200, 202, 

206 
cruelty of conquerors, 207 
fertility of country, 205, 206 
government, 198 
houses, 199 
marriage, 199 
punishments, 200, 201 
religion, 201, 202 
trade, 199 
animal life, 156, 157, 158, 159, 

160, 161, 182, 183, 184 
ants, 164-166, 183, 184 
appearance from ship, 31, 32 
army, 22 
beef cattle, 160 
butterflies, 1S4, 185 



304 



INDEX 



Nicaragua {continued) — 

cacao plantations, 1S4 

camp-life, 139-144. See also En- 
gineering party 

cities, 23 

climate, 24, 25 

dances, 166, 167 

earthquake tremblor, 166 

Jiesta, 1 68, 169 

food and drinks, 120, 134, 167, 
169 

forest growth, 158, 159, 162, 179, 
180 

fruits, 160 

general character, 11, 12 

government, 20-23 

health, 24, 25 

historical : first exploration by 
Spanish, 203 ; conquered by 
Spanish, 203 ; made province of 
Guatemala, 205 ; first English 
occupation, 41 , protests against 
English claims, 52 ; ordered to 
evacuate Greytown, 52; resort to 
arms, 52; attack on Greytown, 
53; sovereignty over Greytown 
relinquished, 53; concessions to 
American Atlantic and Pacific 
Ship-Canal Co., 55; protests 
against Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 
60; Liberal government estab- 
lished, 64; attacked by Costa Rica, 
65 ; Minister received by United 
States, 65 ; acquires nominal rule 
over Mosquito Reservation with- 
in her borders, 68; sustained 
by United States against Mos- 
quito government, 69; refuses 
subvention to Mosquito Indians, 
69, "jo-^ obtains Mosquito Coast, 
72; refuses concession to Canal, 
91 ; misunderstanding with Costa 
Rica, 189 ; joins Republic of Cen- 
tral America, 215; Serviles rise, 
219, 220; civil strife, 229; de- 
clares independence, 235 ; col- 
lision with Morazan, 235 ; invaded 
by Malespin, 238; San Juan 
seized by English, 238; Somoza's 
insurrection, 238; civil war, 238, 
239; army receives American re- 
cruits, 245 ; provisional govern- 



ment established by Walker, 250 ; 
ministers not recognized by U. S., 
254, 255 ; war declared by Costa 
Rica, 255; troops defeated, 256; 
Serviles elect Walker President, 
66, 259 ; slavery re-established, 
66, 263 ; revolution, 147-152 

Indians on East coast, 197; of Cen- 
tral and Western district, 197 

industries, 24 

insect pests, etc., 140, 141, 145, 161, 

162, 170 

labor, price of, 192 

land, price of, 191, 192 

mountains, 19, 20, 79, So 

musical instruments, 167 

navy, 22 

people, character of, etc., 23, 159, 

163, 164 
population, 23 
railroads, 174 

rainfall on East coast, 36 

rainy season, 169-176, 180, 181 

resources, 16, 17 

rivers, ig 

rubber-industry, 121, 122 

scenery, 121, 122, 132, 135 

situation, 13 

soldiers, 120, 129, 130, 145, 151, 
152 

topography, 13-15 

travelling, by boat, 11 9-137; over- 
land, 138, 139, 144, 147, 153, 
154, 158; in rainy season, 171- 
176, 179, 188, 189 

vegetable products, 160 

visit of Thomas Gage, 1665, 207, 
20S 

volcanoes, 20 
Nicaragua, ancient chief, 203, 204 
Nicaragua Canal 

action by U. S. Congress, 18S0, ^o 

advantages, 8 

Board formed, 94 ; report, 95 

Commission of 1876, 69 

cost, 7, 8; estimates of, 99, 100, 
loi, no, 114 

harbor jetties, 114-117 

locks, 98, 99, 100, 102, 106, 107, 
109, 112, 113 

projects, engineering features, 97- 
118 



INDEX 



305 



Nicaragua Canal {continued) — 
Childs, Col., plans of, 97-99 
Isthmian Canal Co., plans of, 110- 

118 
Lull's plan, 99, 100 
Menocal's plans, 100-106, 109 
Nicaragua Canal Commission's 
plans, 106-110 
projects, history of, 85-97 
American, 86, 87, 88-96 
Central American, 87 
Dutch, 87 
English, 86 
French, 86, 87, 88, 89 
German, 86 
Mexican, 86 
Spanish, 85 
route, physical formation, 74-84 
boundaries, 74 

character of soil and rock, no 
continental divide, 78 
forest growth, 83 
length, no, 113 
rainfall, 83, 84 
rivers, 74-78 
volcanic activity, 78-80 
Nicaragua Canal Commission, 26, 36 
appointed, 95 
Canal project, 106-110 
harbor wforks, proposed, 115, 116, 

117, 118 
report, 96 

on Lake discharge, 103, 104 
Nicaragua Canal Construction Co., 
incorporated, 93 ; fails, 94 ; reorgan- 
ized, 94 
Nicaragua National Railway, 271, 277 
Nicaragua Transit Co., formed, 54; 
merged into American Atlantic and 
Pacific Ship-Canal Co., 55 ; relation 
of employees with English, 62 ; 
property protected by volunteer 
guard, 63 ; charter annulled and 
property seized by Nicaragua, 65 ; 
concession forfeited, 89 ; survey for, 
98; withdraws steamers, 256; char- 
ter revoked by Walker, 256; dis- 
honorable dealings with Nicaragua, 
257; re-established, 262; steamers 
seized by Costa Ricans, 266 
Nicoya, ancient chief, 203 
Niquiranas, 197 

20 



Noble, Alfred, C. E., 95, 96 
" Northern Light, The," American 
steamer, 63 



OCHOA dam, in proposed plans, loi, 

102, 103, 104, 106, 107, 109 
Oersted's canal route, 88 
Old Providence, 41 
Oldman, Mosquito prince, 42, 43 
Ometepe 

aboriginal remains on island, 196, 
197 

altitude, 132 

description, 196 

inhabitants, early, 197 

volcanic action, 80 
Ortega, Nicanor, engaged as overseer, 

137; character, 157; acts as guide, 

171-176 
Ouseley, Sir William, sent to Central 

America, 68 ; makes agreements 

with Guatemala, Honduras, and 

Nicaragua, 68 



Pacific streams, 'j'j 

Palmerston, Lord, 51 

Panama Canal, 7, 8, 9; advocated by 
Louis Philippe, 87; rejected by 
American projectors, 89; advocated 
by International Scientific Congress, 
91 ; lobby thwarts Nicaragua Canal 
projects, 92 

Paraiso, encampment at, 153-158 

Pasco, Hon. Samuel, 96 

Patterson, Captain C. P., 90 

Paulding, Commodore, 66; deports 
Walker to United States, 268 

Pearl Lagoon, 41 

Peary, R. E., C. E., U. S. N., goes to 
Nicaragua, 93 

Pedrarias. See Arias, Pedro de 

Peru, aids Costa Rica against Nica- 
ragua, 255 

Philip II., commission to Nicaragua, 

85 
Pierce administration, attitude of, 64 
Pierson, Colonel, leads Liberals against 

Gen. Arce, 219 
Pineda, President of Nicaragua, 238 
Pirates, 208 



3o6 



INDEX 



Polk, President, 54 

Poison, Colonel, attacks Castillo, 124- 
128 

Poya natives, 49 

Provisional Canal Association, 93 ; be- 
comes Maritime Canal Co., 93 

Provisional Interoceanic Canal Society, 
92 

Pueblo Viejo, 208 

QuijANO, Colonel, seized by English, 

Ramirez, Colonel, meets Walker, 

245 
Rats, 182 

Realejo, 208, 245 ; superseded by 
Corinto, 279 

Republic of Central America, formed, 
215 ; discord, 218; Barrundia made 
President, 222 ; Liberals in power, 
222-232 ; affirms religious toler- 
ance, 224 ; troubles with taxation, 
224, 225 ; loans from English, 225 ; 
attempts treaty with English, 225, 
226 ; Servile plots, 227 ; government 
recognizes doctrine of secession, 228; 
Indian insurrections, 22S, 230 ; Con- 
gress removed to San Salvador, 229 ; 
cholera, 230, 231 ; riot at Santa 
Rosa, 231 ; Serviles in power, 232- 
235 ; insurgents attacked by General 
Salazar, 234 ; Congress adjourns, 
235 ; unsettled conditions, 235-239 

Revolution in Nicaragua, 147-152 

Rio Colorado, 82 

Rio Del Medio, in proposed Canal 
plans, 99 

Rio Frio, 131 

Rio Grande 
Canal plans, as affected by, 98, 99, 

100, loi, 108 
encampment on bank, 163 
formation, early, 77, 78 
rainy season, during, 170, 179 
survey, 191 
valley 

character of, 109, 178 

at Brito, 179, 187 
examination of, 171 

Rio Juan Davila, 191 



Rio Las Lajas, 78 
Canal plans, as affected by, 98, 99, 

100 
mouth, 137 

valley, character of, 145, 178 
Rio San Carlos, 76, 82 ; as affected 
by Canal plans, 100, 106, 107, 109, 
112 
Rio San Juan 
Canal plans, as affected by, 97, 98, 

100, loi, 102, 103, 107, 109 
description, 18 

incursions by English, 41, 44, 46 
sharks, 131, 132 

travelling on, 34, 119-124, 128-130 
valley 

delta formation, 76, "]•] 
present divisions, three, 80-82 
previous formation, 74-76 
Rio San Juanillo, in Canal plans, 100, 

107 
Rio Sarapiqui, 76, 82 ; in Canal plans, 

98 
Rio Tola, 180 
Rivas, 24 
arrival at, 133 
description, 135 

historical : garrisoned by Colonel 
Boscha, 246 ; attacked by Walker, 
246-248 ; made Costa Rican 
headquarters. 258 ; attacked by 
Walker, 258 ; attacked by allies, 
266, 267 ; abandoned by iilibust- 
ers, 268 ; recruiting, 144, 145 ; at- 
tacked by revolutionists, 148-15 1 
hotel, 176 

inhabitants, 136; early, 197 
stay in, 194, 195 
tramway, 136 
Rivas, Don Patricio, 64 ; annuls 
charter and seizes property of Nica- 
ragua Transit Co., 65 ; made Pres- 
ident pro tern, of Nicaragua, 252 ; 
issues counter-declaration of war 
against Costa Rica, 255; refused 
recognition by neighboring repub- 
lics, 256 ; orders new election, 259 ; 
defeated for President, 259 ; leads 
allied forces of Guatemala, Hon- 
duras, and San Salvador, 260 ; seizes 
Leon, 260 ; seizes Masaya, 260 ; 
attacked by Walker, 260 ; concen- 



INDEX 



307 



trates troops at Masaya, 265 ; at- 
tacks Rivas, 266, 267 

Robert, Mosquito King, 48, 49 

Robert Charles Frederick, Mosquito 
King, 49; barters Mosquito Coast 
to H. L. Kinney, 253 

Roncador reef, 72 

Ruatan, island of, seized by English, 
44, 49, 261 ; under English control, 

51 

Rubber-industry, 121, 122 
Runnels, Mrs., 133 



Saddles, Nicaraguan, 142 

"St. Mary's," U. S. S., 66 

Salazar, General, attacks insurgents, 
234; candidate for Nicaraguan 
presidency, 259 

Salmon, Captain, British, demands sur- 
render of Walker, 269 ; delivers him 
to Honduras, 269 

San Carlos 
arrival at, 129 
attacked by filibusters, 25 1 
description, 130, 131 

San Domingo, expedition from, 41 

"San Jacinto," government tug, 33 

San Jorge 
arrival at, 133 
attacked by Walker, 133 

San Jose, rebels against Serviles, 215 

San Juan del Norte. See Greytown 

San Juan del Sur, 66 
description, i^t, 
harborage, 117, 118 
hostilities during revolution, 147 
hotel, 177 

San Pablo, encampment at, 139-141 ; 
arrival of commissioners, 145 

San Salvador, conquered by Serviles 
and Mexicans, 215; joins Republic 
of Central America, 215; opposes 
power of Church, 217; Liberals rise 
against General Arce, 220 ; success- 
ful struggle against Serviles, 221, 
222 ; withdraws from Confederation, 
227, 228; headquarters Federal Con- 
gress, 229; clash between State and 
Federal authorities, 229 ; attacked 
by Carrera, 234; adheres to Con- 
federation, 235, 236; plot against 



Morazan, 236; governed by Males- 
pin, 238 ; troops invade Nicaragua, 
238; unites with Guatemala and 
Honduras against Walker, 260 
{see Rivas, Don Patricio) 

Santa Ana, San Salvador, captured by 
Carrera, 234 

Santa Rosa, riot at, 231 

Sarapiqui, 52, 53 

Schlessinger, Colonel Louis, leads 
Nicaraguan advance against Costa 
Ricans, 255; flees, 256 

Scorpions, 183, 184 

Scott, A. L., joins engineermg party, 

153 _ 

Segovia River, 41 

Serviles vs. Liberals, 214-239, 244- 
270 

Sharks, 79, 131, 132 

Smith, Captain, shoots Mosquito 
negro, 63 

Snakes, 160, 182, 183 

Soldiers, 120, 129, 130, 145, 151, 152 

Somoza's insurrection, 238 

Sonora, Mexico, Walker's exploits in, 
241-244 

Spanish, discovery and settlement of 
Central America, 40 ; expedition 
against English in Bay Islands, 41 ; 
treaties with England, 42, 44, 45, 
47 ; negotiations with England, 42 ; 
war with England, 43, 44, 46, 47 ; 
protests against England, 44 ; at- 
tack on Belize, 44 ; claims on Mos- 
quito shore, 41-53 ; attack on Eng- 
lish, 46 ; character of government in 
Central America, 212, 213 

Spencer, Mr., seizes Nicaragua Tran- 
sit Co.'s steamers for Costa Rica, 
266 ; captures San Juan valley, 
266 

Spiders, 161 

Squier, E. G., appointed as special 
U. S. agent to Central America, 54 ; 
makes treaty between U. S. and 
Honduras, 55 ; asserts sovereignty 
of U. S., 56 ; treaty referred to 
Committee on Foreign Relations, 
57 ; abandoned, 59 ; opinion of 
Nicaragua Transit Co., 257 ; quota- 
tion from his "Nicaragua," 276, 
277 



3o8 



INDEX 



Temples in ancient times, 201 

Teotl, 201 

Texas, annexation to United States, 

Tigre Island, ceded to United States, 

55 ; seized by English, 56, 57 
Titus, Colonel, attacks Costa Ricans, 

266 
Tola 
attack by Walker, 186, 246 
character, 185, 186 
encampment near, 180, 1S8 
forest growth near, 180 
Tola Basin, 158, 159 

Canal plans, as affected by, 102, 108 
character, 178, 184 
Toro rapids, 18 ; formation, 81, 82 
Travelling on 
Lake Nicaragua, 196, 202, 276 
land, 138, 139, 144, 147, 153, 154, 
158, 271, 277, 278 
in rainy season, 1 71-176, 179, 
188, 189 
Pacific, Corinto to Panama, 280 
Rio San Juan, 119-124, 128-130 
Treaties 

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. See Clay- 

ton-Bulwer 
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. See Hay- 

Pauncefote 
First treaty between United States 

and Nicaragua, 54 
Second treaty between United States 

and Nicaragua, 55 
Squier Treaty. See Squier, E. G. 
Treaty of 1868, 69 
Treaty of Madrid, 1670, 42, 43; 

1814, 48 
Treaty of Managua, 69 
Treaty of Paris, 45 
Treaty of 1786, 47, 48 
Treaty of Versailles, 47, 48 
Truxillo, Honduras, threatened with 
bombardment by English, 55 ; de- 
monstration abandoned, 56 ; seized 
by Walker, 66, 269 



United States, appeal by Central 
America disregarded, 50; action of 
Polk administration, 54; first treaty 
with Nicaragua, 54, 56 ; second 



treaty, 55 ; treaty with Honduras, 
55 ; intervention of Government 
against English, 56; action during 
Taylor administration, 56 ; Senate 
Committee on Foreign Relations, 
on Squier Treaty, 57; concludes 
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Eng- 
land, 58 ; difference with English 
over port-dues, 60 ; objects to Eng- 
lish violation of Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty, 61 ; sends sloop-of-war 
against English in Grey town, 63; 
attitude during Pierce administration, 
64 ; attitude toward filibusters, 254, 
255 ; recognizes Nicaraguan govern- 
ment, 260; receives Nicaraguan 
minister, 65 ; demands surrender of 
Walker, 268 ; acquits him, 269 ; agi- 
tates abrogation of Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty, 65 ; attempts new agree- 
ment with Great Britain, 67, 68; 
supports Nicaragua against Mos- 
quito government, 69 ; Canal Com- 
mission of 1876, 70 ; action by 
Congress, 1880, 70 ; sends warships 
to Blewfields, 71 ; helps Nicaragua 
in Mosquitoland, 72; attempts 
another treaty, 1900, 72 ; Senate 
ratifies Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 
i90i( 73 



Valle, leads Democratic army with 
Walker, 250 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 55 ; antagonized 
by Nicaragua, 65 ; aids Costa Rica, 
65, 257 ; forms Canal Company, 88 

Vanderbilt Transit Railroad, 174 

"Vero," river steamer, 128-130 

" Vesta," brig, 245, 246 

Viceroy of Mexico, seeks Canal loca- 
tion, %"] 

"Victoria," lake steamer, 130, 150, 

153, 194, 195 

Vijil, Padre, made minister to United 
States, 255 

Virgin Bay, seized by Costa Ricans, 
257; Costa Ricans defeated by 
Walker, 262; held by Colonel 
Markham and Colonel Jacques, 263 

" Vixen," English warship, 53 

Volcanoes, 20, 78-80, 272-275 



INDEX 



309 



Walker, Lieutenant, trip from New 
York to Greytown, 26-38 ; accom- 
panies revolutionists, 148-150; ac- 
companies Mr. Wheeler on investi- 
gating tours, 171-176; trip to Brito, 
186-188 

Walker, Patrick, deputy regent of 
Mosquitoland, 49 

Walker, Rear-Admiral J. G., 95, 96 

Walker, William, early life, 240, 241 ; 
visit to Sonora, Mexico, 241 ; made 
President of Mexico, 242 ; attack on 
Sonora, 242-244; retreat to United 
States, 244; negotiates with Nica- 
raguan Democrats, 244; reaches 
Nicaragua, 245; aids Liberals, 64; 
attacks Tola, 186, 246; retreats to 
Leon, 248 ; attacks Rivas, 246-248 ; 
attacks Granada, 249, 250 ; estab- 
lishes provisional government, 250, 
251 ; becomes commander-in-chief 
of army, 252; maintains army of 
Americans and other foreigners, 
254 ; prepares to attack Costa Rica, 
255; falls ill, 256; revokes charter 
of Nicaragua Transit Co., 256; 
takes command of Nicaraguan army, 
257; falls back to Granada, 257; at- 
tacks Rivas, 258; defeated, 258; 
elected President by Serviles, 66, 
259; attacks Masaya, 260; victo- 



rious, 262 ; attacks Caiias at Virgin 
Bay, 262 ; victorious, 263 ; attacks 
Masaya again, 263 ; annuls act 
abolishing slavery, 66, 263 ; goes to 
Ometepe, 264 ; seizes Rivas, 265 ; 
attacks San Jorge, 267; defeated, 
267; surrenders to Captain Davis 
(for United States), 66, 268 ; organ- 
izes new expedition, 268; deported 
to United States, 268 ; acquitted, 
269 ; return to Greytown, 66 : brings 
filibustering party to Honduras, 269 ; 
lands at Ruatan, 66 ; captures Tru- 
xillo, 66, 269 ; surrenders to British 
warship, 67, 269 ; delivered to Hon- 
duran authorities, 269; court-mar- 
tialled, 269; shot, 67, 270 

Wanks River. See Segovia River 

Warwick, Earl of, 41 

Watters, Colonel, relieves Henningsen, 
265 

Wheeler, Minister, recognizes Nica- 
raguan government, 260 

Wheeler, Mr., visits encampment, 171- 
176 

Zapatero island, 197 

Zavala, enters Granada with Servile 

troops, 261; defeated, 262 
Zelaya, General, 21 



PRINTED FOR A. C. McCLURG & CO. BY 
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, JOHN WILSON 
& SON (inc.), CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 



8-1902 
\m. 8 ^902 



\ 



I 



s 



^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Ififitifi'itK. 



